DAVID CAMERON yesterday warned that the general election could lead to the break-up of Britain as the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, faced growing calls from his party to rule out a deal with the Scottish National party.
The prime minister claimed a minority Labour government propped up by the SNP would be the “worst outcome” for the whole country. In a speech in London marking two months before polling day, Cameron said: “You could end up with an alliance between the people who want to bankrupt Britain and the people who want to break up Britain.”
He called on Miliband to “rule out a deal” with Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, and her predecessor, Alex Salmond, “if he cares about this country”.
“You cannot let the people who want to break up our country into the government of our country,” Cameron added.
In a speech to party members in Edinburgh, Miliband refused to rule out a deal with the SNP and instead argued that Scotland would see its funding cut by £2.7bn if the Conservatives win.
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The exchanges come amid growing concern in both parties that the SNP will hold the balance of power after May 7. A poll last week suggested it could win as many as 50 of the 59 Scottish seats.
Yesterday Lord Baker, the former Tory cabinet minister, suggested that Labour and the Conservatives might have to form a coalition to preserve the union. The proposal was rejected as “ludicrous” by Conservative and Labour officials.
Miliband’s refusal to rule out a pact with the SNP sparked open rebellion in his party. “There is not a Labour MP who does not want an announcement that there is not going to be a coalition with the SNP,” said one Scottish MP.
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A shadow minister said Miliband could still be forced to rule out a pact within weeks, even though party insiders fear that this could backfire and increase SNP support.
“If in a couple of weeks it is still felt that further clarification is needed and it would help us in Scotland, or we are getting bitten in England, it would come,” the frontbencher said.
Asked if there was any good news for Labour in Scotland, he joked: “There are only 59 seats where we can lose.”
Lord Bilimoria, the cross-bench peer who established the Cobra beer empire, said it would be a “disaster” for the economy if Miliband shared power with the SNP: “I find the prospect of a Labour-SNP coalition quite frankly terrifying.”
Jim Murphy, Labour’s leader in Scotland, is privately arguing that Labour will not need a deal with the SNP because the nationalists would not dare risk bringing down a Labour government, thus putting the Tories in power.
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Many voters still remember how the SNP helped to bring down the Callaghan government in 1979, ushering in the Thatcher era.
Miliband said last night that Cameron’s refusal to take part in two of the three planned television debates was an “unedifying and tawdry spectacle” and pledged that a Labour government would legislate to ensure that such debates happened in future.
“It is time to ensure that these debates belong to the people, not the prime minister of the day,” he said.
A senior Tory source said an American-style independent debates commission model would be “something to look at” after the election.