Scottish Nationalists Vow to 'Prop Up' Labour Government in Exchange for New Independence Vote

The new SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has vowed to prop up a Labour government in 2015, according to the Daily Mail.

Sturgeon, who is due to replace former leader Alex Salmond as First Minister next week after a vote in Holyrood, will tell delegates at the SNP’s annual conference in Perth that SNP MPs will not to a deal with the Conservatives if they fail to win an overall majority at Westminster next year.

With a hung parliament a plausible outcome of the next General Election Ms Sturgeon has joined the list of leaders saying their party could hold the balance of power in 2015.

She will say: “The SNP will never put the Tories into Government” adding that the Labour Party “will fall back on the same desperate mantras as before” and tell voters that only Labour will keep the Conservatives out of Downing Street.

She will say this is “the biggest con trick in Scottish politics” and voters “must not fall for it again”.

Currently Labour have 40 MPs in Scotland, a key reason why the national party cannot support a move for English-only votes in Westminster. The Liberal Democrats have 11, the SNP six and the Conservatives have one.

SNP membership has tripled since the independence referendum in September and the party has moved ahead of Labour in voting intentions for the General Election as well as Holyrood polls. It stands on 34 per cent, with Labour on 32 per cent, the Conservatives on 18 per cent, Lib Dems facing a wipe out on five, behind UKIP on six.

In the seats which the Lib Dems stand to lose, it is the Conservatives who were in second place in 2010, not the SNP or Labour. In fact, out of the eleven seats, only one has the SNP in second place.

It therefore seems implausible that voting Labour could leave Scotland with a Conservative government in Westminster any more than voting SNP would.

Former Leader Alex Salmond has also made sure delegates are aware that the referendum result of the NO to independence will not alter the direction of the party.

He told conference that Scotland had “risen to the challenge” of Independence.

“This is the change which will carry us forward – forward to independence,” he said to rousing applause.

The leader of Plaid Cymru was also present in Perth, telling the audience that they had “started a democratic revolution” as voters in Wales became more enthused about their own independence from Westminster, she said.