David Cameron has warned people they need to vote Conservative on Thursday if they want to stop Ed Miliband entering Downing Street.
As the General Election campaign enters its final days, the Prime Minister sought to pitch the contest as a direct personal battle with the Labour leader.
"In the end only one of two people can walk back through that door in No10 and be the prime minister on Friday," he told BBC1's Breakfast .
"If you want your preferred prime minster, vote for your preferred prime minister. Don't take a risk thinking 'I'll vote Liberal Democrat and hope I get the prime minister I want' or vote Ukip and hope somehow it emerges.
"If you want me to carry on leading the country, making sure we have that stability and security in our economy, vote accordingly because we are only 23 seats short from that overall majority."
Mr Cameron said that if Labour did form a government it would only be able to do so with the support of the Scottish Nationalists as it could not gain an overall majority on its own.
"If you want to avoid a Labour government propped up by the SNP - which is not just a possible outcome, but frankly a very possible outcome because Labour can't cross the line on their own - if you want to avoid that because, like me, you worry about having the government being held to ransom by a bunch of people that don't want our country to succeed, indeed they don't want our country to exist, then the answer is to vote Conservative," he said.
Mr Miliband, campaigning in Hastings, will seek to shut down the charge that, as prime minister, he would be at the mercy of the SNP, insisting there would be no "special deals" for Scotland under a Labour administration.
He will dismiss Tory claims that he would be forced to do deals with the nationalists in order to remain in power as a "deflection" from the real issues facing the country.
"It is a distraction, offered in the final desperate days of the Tory campaign, to divert your attention from the truth of their own record," he will say.
"Under a Labour government, there won't be any special deals for Scotland. But I will tell you this: if I am prime minister, there won't be any special deals for bankers or hedge funds or energy companies, either."
With just five days remaining for the parties to break the opinion-poll deadlock and secure a General Election victory, Mr Miliband told The Guardian it was a battle "between two sets of values", not a choice between two nations.
In an interview with the newspaper - which yesterday declared its support for Labour - he said Prime Minister David Cameron had "entirely withdrawn from the central issues facing the country".
Despite Mr Miliband's insistence that he would not negotiate with the SNP, senior Labour figures continued to suggest he may have little choice.
Former Scottish first minister Henry McLeish said the Labour leader could not afford to exclude himself from the possibility of being prime minster by refusing to talk.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I can't bind Ed to anything but look, you know well enough that the pragmatic political side will say 'I'm going for a majority, all this talk of speaking to anyone is out of the question'.
"On the other hand, the politics of reality say I would rather see Ed Miliband in Number 10, no matter the conditions.
"But certainly that's the big alternative to David Cameron.
"At the end of the day, Ed is not going to exclude himself from being prime minister by not talking to anyone."
David Cameron has warned people they need to vote Conservative on Thursday if they want to stop Ed Miliband entering Downing Street.
As the General Election campaign enters its final days, the Prime Minister sought to pitch the contest as a direct personal battle with the Labour leader.
"In the end only one of two people can walk back through that door in No10 and be the prime minister on Friday," he told BBC1's Breakfast .
"If you want your preferred prime minster, vote for your preferred prime minister. Don't take a risk thinking 'I'll vote Liberal Democrat and hope I get the prime minister I want' or vote Ukip and hope somehow it emerges.
"If you want me to carry on leading the country, making sure we have that stability and security in our economy, vote accordingly because we are only 23 seats short from that overall majority."
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Mr Cameron said that if Labour did form a government it would only be able to do so with the support of the Scottish Nationalists as it could not gain an overall majority on its own.
"If you want to avoid a Labour government propped up by the SNP - which is not just a possible outcome, but frankly a very possible outcome because Labour can't cross the line on their own - if you want to avoid that because, like me, you worry about having the government being held to ransom by a bunch of people that don't want our country to succeed, indeed they don't want our country to exist, then the answer is to vote Conservative," he said.
Mr Miliband, campaigning in Hastings, will seek to shut down the charge that, as prime minister, he would be at the mercy of the SNP, insisting there would be no "special deals" for Scotland under a Labour administration.
He will dismiss Tory claims that he would be forced to do deals with the nationalists in order to remain in power as a "deflection" from the real issues facing the country.
"It is a distraction, offered in the final desperate days of the Tory campaign, to divert your attention from the truth of their own record," he will say.
"Under a Labour government, there won't be any special deals for Scotland. But I will tell you this: if I am prime minister, there won't be any special deals for bankers or hedge funds or energy companies, either."
With just five days remaining for the parties to break the opinion-poll deadlock and secure a General Election victory, Mr Miliband told The Guardian it was a battle "between two sets of values", not a choice between two nations.
In an interview with the newspaper - which yesterday declared its support for Labour - he said Prime Minister David Cameron had "entirely withdrawn from the central issues facing the country".
Despite Mr Miliband's insistence that he would not negotiate with the SNP, senior Labour figures continued to suggest he may have little choice.
Former Scottish first minister Henry McLeish said the Labour leader could not afford to exclude himself from the possibility of being prime minster by refusing to talk.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I can't bind Ed to anything but look, you know well enough that the pragmatic political side will say 'I'm going for a majority, all this talk of speaking to anyone is out of the question'.
"On the other hand, the politics of reality say I would rather see Ed Miliband in Number 10, no matter the conditions.
"But certainly that's the big alternative to David Cameron.
"At the end of the day, Ed is not going to exclude himself from being prime minister by not talking to anyone."
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