Giving the Scottish National Party a role in the government of the UK would be like putting the child-killing King Herod in charge of a "baby farm", Boris Johnson has said.
The London Mayor and would-be Conservative MP said that Labour leader Ed Miliband would only be able to become prime minister after the May 7 General Election with the support of the SNP, which would make him the "plaything" of its leader Nicola Sturgeon and her predecessor Alex Salmond.
Mr Johnson described the SNP as "literally anti-British" and said they should not play a part in governing a United Kingdom which they are "sworn to destroy". And he warned that an SNP/Labour partnership - either in coalition or a less formal co-operation arrangement - would produce a chaotic left-wing administration so "calamitous" that the rest of the UK would be "only too happy" to hand Scotland its independence.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph on the day of the SNP manifesto launch, Mr Johnson said: "You wouldn't get Herod to run a baby farm, would you? It would not normally occur to you to interview a convicted jewel thief for the post of custodian of the Tower of London.
"You would not dream of asking a fox to look after the henhouse or a temperance campaigner to run a brewery or Attila the Hun to work as a doorkeeper for the Roman senate - and no one in their right mind would enter into a contract with a bunch of voracious weevils to protect the lovely old timbers in the tower of the local church. Would they?
"Any such course of action would be totally nuts. So can someone tell me why in the name of all that is holy there are some apparently rational people who are even contemplating the elevation of the Scottish Nationalist Party to a position of effective dominance in the government of the United Kingdom - an entity that they are sworn to destroy?"
Describing the Scottish nationalists as "lefties on steroids", Mr Johnson said they would exert pressure on a minority Labour government to abandon efforts to control the deficit, introduce new taxes, scrap the Trident nuclear deterrent and ditch welfare reform.
Despite Mr Miliband's firm promise not to form a coalition with the SNP, Mr Johnson said the Labour leader would only be able to form a government through a formal coalition with the SNP or a confidence and supply arrangement, under which the nationalists would agree not to bring him down in return for concessions on his priorities.
"It is therefore obvious to every serious political analyst that he would be in many ways the plaything of the SNP," said the mayor. "He would be the vacillating Macbeth, pushed hither and yon by Lady Macbeth, in the form of Nicola Sturgeon."
Mr Johnson - who is standing for the Conservatives in Uxbridge and South Ruislip - urged voters to back Tories to prevent a Labour/SNP partnership "wrecking the country".
Ms Sturgeon said she had not "heard the comments of Boris Johnson directly".
But speaking at the SNP manifesto launch, she said: "If he did say that, then that is an entirely offensive comment, and I think it will be treated as that not just by people in Scotland but across the UK, who, in my experience, ordinary people the length and breadth of the UK do not see Scotland that way at all and do not see the SNP in that way at all."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article