ED Miliband has accused David Cameron of playing the English Nationalist card by attempting to "stir up English hatred of the Scots".
With just two weeks to go to polling day and the campaign's main political focus still fixed on the possibility of a Labour-SNP alliance, the Prime Minister today issued a warning about how Nicola Sturgeon and her colleagues would have "the rest of Britain over a barrel" and that there were just 14 days to save the United Kingdom from the "economic chaos of an Ed Miliband/SNP nightmare".
After Alex Salmond joked at a recent party fund-raiser that he would be writing Labour's Budget, Mr Miliband again dismissed such a notion out of hand, telling a BBC interview: "If you want to ask who is going to write Labour's first Queen's Speech, who is going to write Labour's first Budget, it is the Labour Party not the SNP."
The party leader has already ruled out a coalition with the Nationalists. Scottish Labour has insisted there would be no deal with the SNP leadership on Trident or "any other issue for that matter". But recently Shadow Minister Angela Eagle muddied the waters by saying, in the event of a hung parliament, Labour would "talk to other people" about a possible arrangement.
Pressed on the issue of a deal with the SNP, Mr Miliband came the closest yet to ruling out any arrangement whatsoever with the Nationalists post May 7.
Asked if there would be "an agreement" with them, he replied: "There isn't going to be that," stressing how there were "real differences" between the two parties on issues like the deficit, public spending cuts, the nuclear deterrent and the Union.
The Labour leader then asked, rhetorically, who was standing up to the Nationalists and who was talking up the Nationalists.
"The Prime Minister is spending his time trying to set one part of the United Kingdom against another," declared Mr Miliband. "He is trying to stir up English hatred of the Scots and Scottish resentment against the English," insisted the Labour leader.
He argued there was an issue of character in the election, which voters would have to make a judgement on.
"We have got David Cameron, whose campaign has shrivelled so much he is reduced to talking about one thing only; which is the SNP. He is supposed to be the leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party. He is supposed to be defending the United Kingdom.
"Working people right across the UK have a lot more in common than divides us and I am happy to be the person defending the United Kingdom and defending the idea that we can stand up for working people everywhere.
"It is not some competition for resources across this United Kingdom; that's a Nationalist argument, not a Unionist argument. And I am a Unionist."
But Stewart Hosie, the SNP's deputy leader, challenged Mr Miliband to "give a clear answer to the question of whether he would work with the SNP to lock David Cameron out of Downing Street or prefer to see the Tories back in government with all the damage that would cause to communities in Scotland and across the UK".
He added: "If it's the latter, Labour would never be forgiven by the people of Scotland."
As the clock ticks down to May 7, Mr Cameron this morning issued an urgent appeal to the British electorate, saying every vote was crucial.
"We need just 23 seats to stop the SNP/Miliband nightmare; one that would hit everyone in the pocket. We've got just two weeks to make our case, the case for a stronger economy and brighter future for Britain; nothing less than the future of your family depends upon it," he said.
In an email to Conservative supporters he outlined what he said were the lessons from the campaign so far.
"We've learnt Ed Miliband would spend, tax and borrow more than anyone feared; and that would hit your family hard. We've learnt that the SNP would hold Miliband to ransom; and have the rest of Britain over a barrel.
"We've learnt that there is only one party that can deliver the security the people of Britain need: the Conservative Party."
Elsewhere, Nick Clegg insisted there was a "clear and present danger" to public services from the prospect of Mr Cameron trying to run a Tory minority government.
The Liberal Democrat leader said there were "just two weeks left to stop the right-wing threat to Britain" caused by his Coalition partner possibly being forced to rely on Ukip, Ulster's Democratic Unionists and his own hardline backbenchers for support; an alliance the Deputy Prime Minister has dubbed "Blukip".
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