Former prime minister Sir John Major has warned that the Scottish National Party represents “a real and present danger” to the future of Britain, as he pleaded with voters to turn their backs on a minority Labour government propped up by Nicola Sturgeon’s party.
A partnership between Labour and the SNP would be a “recipe for mayhem”, with Ed Miliband subjected to “a daily dose of political blackmail” from nationalists who would “create merry hell” in the hope of promoting the break-up of the United Kingdom, said Sir John.
But Mr Miliband dismissed the warning, accusing David Cameron and the Conservatives of “threatening the integrity of the United Kingdom” by talking up the prospects of Scottish nationalists in the May 7 General Election.
The Labour leader insisted there would be no coalition with the SNP and denied that Ms Sturgeon’s party would hold the whip hand on policy, telling BBC1’s Breakfast: “A Labour government led by me, what happens in that Labour government will be decided by me, not by the SNP.”
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Entering the General Election fray with a high-profile speech in Solihull, Sir John said that any form of co-operation with the nationalists – even an informal and unacknowledged partnership – would leave Labour “in hock to a party that, slowly but surely, will push them further to the left”.
“And who would pay the price for this?” he asked. “You would. We all would. We would all pay for the SNP’s ransom in our daily lives – through higher taxes, fewer jobs, and more and more debt.”
Current polls suggest the SNP could boost its tally of MPs to more than 50, holding the balance of power in the House of Commons.
Sir John predicted that they would use the position to demand policies favouring Scotland at the expense of the rest of Britain, and would aim to “drive a wedge” between the nations of the UK, manufacturing grievances with the hope of winning the 2016 election to the Scottish Parliament and paving the way for a second independence referendum.
“They will ask for the impossible and create merry hell if it is denied,” he warned. “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.”
Sir John said it would be “perverse in the extreme” for the Conservatives to be thrown out of office at the point when recovery was taking hold.
And he issued a plea to voters: “However disaffected, disengaged – downright fed up – many may be with politics and politicians, let me repeat the very simple choice in front of you all on polling day: do you vote for the party that presided over economic chaos, or the party that has now led us out of it?”