Ed Miliband has ruled out forming a coalition with the Scottish National party after the general election as he moved to close off a Tory campaign based on the warning that Labour would join forces with a party committed to the break up of the UK.

Amid anger in the Labour party at the prime minister’s claim that Miliband is planning a “despicable” bid to assume power on the coattails of the nationalists, the Labour party said there would be no SNP ministers in any government led by him.

Speaking in Pudsey, West Yorkshire, the Labour leader accused the prime minister of seeking to scare people. Miliband said: “Labour will not go into coalition government with the SNP. There will be no SNP ministers in any government I lead.”

Within minutes of the lunchtime announcement, the SNP and Tories issued similar statements to say that Miliband’s intervention made no difference on the grounds that he had stopped short of ruling out an informal deal with the SNP.

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, said that Labour and the SNP would still be able to work together to keep the Tories out of Downing Street. A Conservative spokesperson said: “This changes nothing. Ed Miliband will not rule out a deal with the SNP because he knows it’s impossible to become prime minister without being carried into Downing Street in Alex Salmond’s pocket.”

The two sworn enemies joined forces in an unlikely alliance after Miliband delivered carefully calibrated remarks to make clear that the SNP would have no role in a UK government led by him. But he stopped short of ruling out a less formal deal amid fears in the Labour leadership that this could raise questions about the legitimacy of Scottish MPs in Westminster.

In his speech he attacked the Tories for scaring people, saying: “The Tories, the party that haven’t won a majority for over 20 years, are now running a misleading campaign based on the idea of a Labour-SNP coalition. As I said on Thursday night, this idea is nonsense.

“It will not happen … In continuing to repeat this claim, the Conservative party and David Cameron are simply trying to scare people.

“This episode also proves something else about David Cameron: he leads a Conservative party that has given up on the Scottish people; a Conservative party that now simply wants to use Scotland as a political device; a Conservative party that does not even try and pretend it can represent the whole country.

“A Conservative party that has given up on winning a majority. And the real threat to working families across our country lies in the Conservative party being in government.”

Sturgeon, who had earlier raised the possibility of forming a “looser arrangement” with Labour that would fall short of a coalition, said Miliband’s remarks made no difference because his speech still left open the possibility of an informal Labour-SNP deal to keep the Tories out of power. Speaking shortly after Miliband’s speech, she told Sky News: “I don’t think what Ed Miliband has just said changes anything very much at all. I have said previously and I have said repeatedly that a formal coalition between Labour and the SNP was highly unlikely. It would not be my preference. So Ed Miliband hasn’t really said anything today that I haven’t said previously.

“That wouldn’t prevent the SNP and Labour working together to keep the Tories out of government. As long as there are more anti-Tory MPs in the House of Commons, whether they are Labour, SNP, Plaid Cymru or Green, than there are Tory MPs then we can lock David Cameron out of Downing Street. That’s an area where the only way he could get into Downing Street would be if Labour allowed him to. So I don’t think Ed Miliband’s statement today has changed the reality on the ground at all.”

A Conservative spokesperson said: “There have been over 1,200 votes in this Parliament. Vote by vote, bill by bill, issue by issue, Ed Miliband would have to do a deal with the SNP on each and every one of them. Who knows what Ed Miliband will sell out to Alex Salmond on: more borrowing, more debt, higher taxes or weaker defences. But one thing’s for certain: it’s hardworking taxpayers who will pay the price for this chaos.”

In a speech at the London School of Economics, before Miliband spoke, the Scottish first minister said she could not understand why Labour would turn down the chance to keep the Tories out of office. The Scottish first minister declined to go into details about her proposal for a “looser arrangement” but said this could cover a “confidence and supply” arrangement in which the SNP would support a Labour Queen’s speech (confidence) and budget (supply), without joining the government.

Sturgeon said: “I can’t for the life of me see why Labour wouldn’t want to contemplate working with the SNP to keep the Tories out of office. As long as there are more SNP and Labour MPs than there are Tory MPs we can lock the Tories out of government. There is no question about that.”



Labour has ruled out a coalition with the SNP amid fears among Scottish Labour MPs that the prospect of a coalition undermined one of Labour’s central arguments as it fights against a historic surge to the nationalists – that a vote for the SNP would help Cameron remain in Downing Street by reducing the number of Labour MPs. But the Guardian reported on Monday morning that Labour is fearful of ruling out a looser relationship with the SNP for fear of questioning the legitimacy of Scottish MPs at Westminster.

Sturgeon made clear that she is alive to these arguments as she outlined the SNP’s position in a hung parliament in which it held the balance of power. The SNP would never form any alliance with the Tories; it regards a coalition with Labour as highly unlikely but it would not rule out a looser arrangement to support a Labour-led government.

Sturgeon said: “I want to see SNP MPs being in the House of Commons at Westminster arguing for and pushing for progressive change,” the first minister said. “I also don’t want to see David Cameron re-elected.”