NICOLA Sturgeon has come as close as she may ever do to urging people to vote Labour; in England that is.

Questioned about who she would urge people south of the border to vote for on May 7, the First Minister stressed that she wanted as many "progressive voices" in the House of Commons as possible.

Speaking at a Q&A session following a speech at the London School of Economics, she said: "If you live in Wales, I'd advise you to vote for Plaid Cymru. If you live in England, there is an argument for voting Green."

She then said: "There is, depending on if you think your Labour candidate is progressive and is prepared to challenge, then, perhaps..."

The SNP leader then quickly stressed that it was not for her to tell the people of England how to vote but noted: "If I was living in England, I'd be probably looking at voting Green; if I was living in Wales, I'd definitely be voting for Plaid Cymru."

Describing herself as a "progressive politician," she stressed: "In Scotland that means voting SNP - without a shadow of a doubt."

Ms Sturgeon insisted: "I want to see as many progressive voices in the House of Commons after the election, and that is SNP, Green, Plaid Cymru.

"I would like to see more progressive Labour voices challenging the Labour leadership, so that there is that scope for that progressive alliance that I spend a bit of time in London talking about."

She added: "So that's my advice, take it or leave it. But if you live in Scotland, definitely vote SNP."