AN outspoken attack by Sir John Major has been denounced by the SNP high command as an affront to democracy after he warned the Nationalists would "create merry hell" at Westminster if they ever held the balance of power across the UK.
Nicola Sturgeon dismissed the former Prime Minister's remarks as "silly and over the top" while her predecessor as First Minister, Alex Salmond, denounced Sir John's position as "fundamentally undemocratic".
The war of words broke out as David Cameron suffered another blow to his campaign strategy from a Tory grandee when Lord Tebbit warned that his savage attacks on the SNP could drive Conservative voters in Scotland into the arms of Labour as "the lesser of two evils".
The campaign temperature rose when Sir John, in a speech in the West Midlands, claimed a minority Labour government propped up by the SNP would be a ''recipe for mayhem'' with Ed Miliband subjected to ''a daily dose of political blackmail'' from the Nationalists, who would push to break up Britain.
''They will ask for the impossible and create merry hell if it is denied,'' insisted the former premier.
"The nightmare of a broken United Kingdom has not gone away. The separation debate is not over. The SNP is determined to prise apart the United Kingdom,'' he added.
But Ms Sturgeon insisted his comments were "an affront to democracy''.
Addressing the Scottish Trades Union Congress in Ayr, the FM once again opened the way for a deal with Labour, insisting SNP MPs could ''vigorously and loudly'' support a minority Miliband government in some areas.
She then said: ''John Major's comments are silly, over the top and frankly they don't show him in a particularly good light."
The FM stressed how she wanted the SNP to go to Westminster to make Scotland's voice heard and also to be a voice for "better politics".
The Nationalist leader added: ''I can understand why that message of standing up for ordinary people not just in Scotland but across the UK might offend John Major as an ex-Tory prime minister but it's a message that will continue to win support right across Scotland.''
Delivering a speech after receiving an honorary degree at Glasgow University, Mr Salmond noted how there was now a debate about the legitimacy of a large contingent of SNP MPs voting for what they believed in at Westminster.
"This disquiet now includes the reincarnation of former Prime Minister, John Major, the man who, let us remember, rather carelessly mislaid every single Tory seat in Scotland. His position is fundamentally undemocratic," declared the former FM, who is seeking a return to the House of Commons in the seat of Gordon.
Mr Salmond pointed to the 2004 vote on tuition fees in England as a key illustration of the need today for a progressive majority in London and why Sir John was "wrong about the future".
He recalled how SNP MPs voted against tuition fees but the vote for introducing them was won by just five votes.
"I suspect," argued Mr Salmond, "there are many students and former students in England today, who dearly wish that vote had turned out differently; that instead of five MPs that day, the SNP had had the numbers that really mattered.
"That is why we should dwell on practical experience and dismiss as unenlightened self-interest the rhetoric emanating from the Westminster parties," he added.
Elsewhere, Mr Miliband accused the PM of seeking to divide Britain. "He is talking up the SNP's chances, not taking them on, and that is dangerous," he declared.
The Labour leader urged "right-thinking Conservatives" to tell their leader to stop his divisive tactics "because he is demeaning his office, he is demeaning himself, he is demeaning those people he sends out on his behalf, and frankly, it is threatening the integrity of the United Kingdom".
Earlier, Labour's Alistair Darling, who led the No campaign against Scottish independence, said the Tories were "flirting with English nationalism" in a desperate way, that could lead to another period of divisive wrangling over Scotland's future.
Meantime, there was more alarm raised about Tory tactics from inside the party.
After ex-Scottish Secretary Lord Forsyth accused Mr Cameron of playing a "short-term and dangerous" game that threatened the Union by building up the SNP as a way of damaging Labour in Scotland, fellow Thatcherite Lord Tebbit intervened, suggesting Tory attacks on the SNP could drive Scottish Conservative supporters to vote tactically for Labour.
The Tory peer, a long-time critic of his party leader, said the PM's suggestion that "the SNP was worse than Labour" could encourage Conservatives to vote for Ed Miliband's party "as the lesser of two evils".
"It's a huge scare tactic against Labour," the former Conservative Chairman declared, "and whether the particular seat in the House of Commons is occupied by a Labour member or an SNP member perhaps, it's not a great difference."
He said the "puzzling" focus on the SNP was not helping the "prime task" of securing a Tory majority at Westminster and noted how it seemed "pointless to just irritate Scots by shouting at them from Westminster" in the same way the English had been "irritated into voting for Ukip".
Lord Tebbit added: "I just cannot read Mr Cameron's mind; it's a foreign country to me."
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