Pressure intensifies on Ed Miliband to rule out deal with SNP
PRESSURE on Ed Miliband to rule out a deal with Scottish Nationalists in the event of a hung Parliament intensified yesterday.
Both parties have voiced scepticism about any formal coalition after the election in May but a looser arrangement has not been ruled out.
Many in Labour, including shadow cabinet ministers, want Mr Miliband to go further.
“We are never going to do a deal with the SNP. We should just say so,” said one.
And a Left-wing analyst said there could never be any lasting Labour-SNP deal because the nationalists could not be relied on to back Mr Miliband’s policies.
The SNP has made clear it will keep demanding further powers for the Scottish Parliament.
David Cameron is poised to continue driving home his party’s warning that if a deal with the SNP makes Mr Miliband Prime Minister, he will have to do the nationalists’ bidding.
Tories claim a pact could threaten the Union between Scotland and the rest of the UK.
Polls indicate the SNP will almost wipe out Labour MPs in Scotland in the election, dashing Mr Miliband’s hopes of a majority in Westminster.
The notion of any pact with the SNP is viewed with horror by many in Labour.
But one unnamed party strategist suggested a permanent alliance pointing to the success of Germany’s coalition between Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats and the nationalists of the Bavarian Christian Social Union.
