Labour and the SNP have angrily accused each other of risking another five years of David Cameron in Downing Street after Ed Miliband ruled out any formal coalition with Nicola Sturgeon's party.

 

Mr Miliband said that his decision showed that the choice in May's General Election was between a Labour or Conservative governments.

But he also failed to rule out a possible informal deal with the SNP, on a vote-by-vote basis.

Mr Cameron hit out at the Labour leader, saying it was "pretty despicable" to consider any deal with a party that wants to break up the UK.

But The Herald understands that Labour MPs have been briefed that their party would also reject an informal arrangement.

MPs have been told that Labour would not offer the SNP policy concessions as part of a so-called "confidence and supply" deal.

Instead, Labour will seek to secure SNP votes by accusing the party of backing the Tories if it votes against a Labour minority government.

Ms Sturgeon initially reacted coolly to Mr Miliband's announcement, saying: "This was a lot of hype to rule out something no-one was proposing. Miliband's statement is absolutely fine from our point of view."

Later, however, she added that the message that Mr Miliband was sending to Scottish voters was "that he would rather see David Cameron in Downing Street".

That view was echoed by SNP MP Pete Wishart, who said: "Labour better not be working towards keeping the Tories in power. Scotland would never forgive them."

Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy said that Mr Miliband's move made it "clearer than ever" that the way to get a Labour Government and remove David Cameron from Downing Street "is to vote Labour.

"If the Nationalists don't want to vote in the House of Commons for a Labour Government's plan for a mansion tax to fund 1,000 more nurses, a bankers' bonus tax to get young Scots back into work and a ban on exploitative zero hours contracts then they will have to explain that to the people of Scotland. "

A Labour source described the briefing given to Labour MPs yesterday as "unambiguous".

he said: "We can't, of course, physically prevent the SNP voting with us. But we are not going to give them anything for it. What are they going to do? Back the Tories?"

Labour hopes to step up pressure on the SNP in the coming weeks in the run up to March 28, the anniversary of the 1979 vote of no confidence in James Callaghan's Labour government.

That vote, backed by the SNP, helped trigger the election that swept Margaret Thatcher into power.

Mr Miliband's decision follows weeks of campaigning from Scottish Labour MPs and those south of the border.

MPs in England say that a series of Tory posters highlighting a possible Labour-SNP deal has led to increased questions on the doorsteps.

Earlier Mr Miliband accused Mr Cameron of "running a misleading campaign" on the idea of a Labour-SNP coalition.

The Conservative Party and their leader were "simply trying to scare people," he said, adding: "Labour will not go into coalition government with the SNP.

There will be no SNP ministers in any government I lead."

Earlier in a speech in London Ms Sturgeon had said a Lab-SNP coalition was "highly unlikely" but stressed: "Working with Labour, in a looser arrangement, I certainly wouldn't rule out because I want to see SNP MPs being in the House of Commons arguing for and pushing for progressive change.

"I also don't want to see David Cameron re-elected to the House of Commons and I can't see for the life of me why Labour wouldn't want to contemplate the possibility of working with the SNP to keep the Tories out of office."

A senior source close to Mr Miliband said the party leader had spoken out to end the Tories' "misinformation campaign" and to make clear that "we're not going to spend the next eight weeks talking about 'what ifs' but on what our policies for government will be".

He admitted that the idea of a coalition was a red herring but added: "It's a red herring and we just killed it."

However, he would not be drawn on possible informal deals.

"If we ruled out one with the SNP, the next question would be one about the Lib Dems, the Greens, the DUP. We're not going there," he said.

A Conservative Party spokesman said that Mr Miliband's announcement had changed "nothing".

"Ed Miliband will not rule out a deal with the SNP because he knows it's impossible to become Prime Minister without being carried into Downing Street in Alex Salmond's pocket," he said.

"Who knows what Ed Miliband will sell out to Alex Salmond on: more borrowing, more debt, higher taxes or weaker defences. But one thing's for certain: it's hardworking taxpayers who will pay the price for this chaos."