Nicola Sturgeon vows party will act for entire UK

The Scottish National Party (SNP) will use its post-election House of Commons influence to act "in the interests" of all of the United Kingdom and end austerity, Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.

Speaking before a huge crowd in Edinburgh, a confident Ms Sturgeon said SNP MPs will use their voting weight to “to make a Labour government bolder and better.

“We will seek to make common cause and build alliances with others of like mind across the UK to deliver the progressive change that so many want to see,” she said.

The SNP election manifesto launched by Ms Sturgeon shares some common traits with Labour even if the headline figures indicate a more left-of-centre approach.

The SNP will vote for the reintroduction of the 50p top tax rate for those earning more than £150,000; a tax on bankers’ bonuses; and a yearly levy on £2 million-plus homes. Furthermore, it wants £180 billion worth of borrowing over the next five years to ensure government spending rises by 0.5 per cent each year.

Labour parallel

The Institute of Fiscal Studies says this is broadly in line with Labour’s plans even if phrased very differently.

Ms Sturgeon, reflecting the optimism felt by the party on the back of polls that say the party is set to win dozens of Commons seats, said Scotland’s voice will be “heard more loudly than it has ever been heard before at Westminster”.

Prime minister David Cameron, predicting doom if there is a Labour-SNP alliance, said a Labour minority backed by the SNP would be a "match made in hell for the British economy".

“With Labour and the SNP, our economy will head into ruin again. And who will pay? You will pay – in higher taxes,” he said.

There are contrary signals about the opinions of voters outside Scotland on how they view the prospect of an SNP-dominated Westminster.

Ms Sturgeon is widely credited as performing strongly in UK-wide TV debates, and there is evidence large numbers of English people have expressed support for the party. However, a Comres poll of more than 1,000 people across Britain, including Scotland, but excluding Northern Ireland, reported that 59 per cent of voters do not want the SNP to play a role in the next government if there is a hung parliament. Interestingly, older British adults are more likely to be opposed to it enjoying significant power. Less than half – 44 per cent of people across Britain – are opposed to the Scottish nationalists playing a crucial role after May 7th in Westminster, but 71 per cent of those aged 65 and over firmly reject it, says the Comres/ITV poll.

Though its manifesto says “a vote for the SNP is a vote to halt progress on Trident renewal”, the SNP’s support for a Labour minority government on a vote-by-vote basis is not conditional on an over-arching deal on the nuclear missile force.

A much-delayed decision on Trident renewal is due early next year, but a Labour government would be able to get it through with Conservative support.

Despite offering to support a minority Labour government, leading SNP figures refuse to advocate to those south of the border who support their aims that they should vote Labour. On the European Union, the SNP opposes UK withdrawal, but warns that each of the UK’s nations should have to vote Yes before the UK as a whole could quit.