Scottish Labour ‘face disaster’ but Balls rules out deal with SNP
ED Balls yesterday ruled out Labour striking a post-election a deal with the SNP as a poll suggested his party is facing disaster in Scotland.
The Shadow Chancellor categorically rejected an arrangement with Nicola Sturgeon to help get his boss Ed Miliband into No 10.
It came as a “poll of polls” showed the UK on course for a hung Parliament after May’s general election.
Labour would be the biggest single party with 268 seats – not enough to form an overall majority.
The Sky News projection placed the Tories on 265 seats and the SNP as potential kingmakers with 53 out of Scotland’s 59 Westminster seats.
Labour would lose 36 seats, leaving it with just five Scottish MPs.
But asked if he would consider a deal with the SNP, Mr Balls replied: “No.”
He said: “I don’t think anybody is suggesting any suggestion of a deal with the SNP at all.
I don’t think anybody is suggesting any suggestion of a deal with the SNP at all
"We’re fighting hard for a majority.”
Mr Balls went further than leader Mr Miliband, who recently played down the prospect of an SNP deal but refused to rule it out completely.
First Minister Ms Sturgeon has stated her preference is for a loose arrangement to support a Labour budget and confidence motions in return for concessions.
SNP demands for the abolition of Trident and full fiscal autonomy make a formal coalition with Labour all but impossible.
With less than 100 days until the ballot David Cameron has described the prospect of a Labour government being “held hostage” by the SNP as “genuinely frightening”.
Yesterday as the early skirmishes of the election battle got under way the parties wheeled out their big guns for a “wealth versus health” campaign.
Mr Cameron promised he would act “within the first few days” of forming a new government to cut the annual benefits cap introduced by the coalition from £26,000 to £23,000 per household, using the £135million savings generated to help fund three million apprenticeships by 2020.
Meanwhile, Labour launched a 10-year plan for the health service in England, with a warning that “the future of the NHS is at stake”.
SNP Westminster Leader Angus Robertson said: “Ed Balls seems oblivious to polls that show the people of Scotland want to see the SNP hold the balance of power at Westminster with a minority Labour government.”
