Labour-SNP coalition would be calamitous, says David Cameron
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Version 0 of 1. David Cameron has said a minority Labour administration in coalition with the SNP would be calamitous for Britain. In a combative and sometimes ill-tempered interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday morning, he said: “This would be the first time in our history that a group of nationalists from one part of our country would be involved in altering the direction of our country, and I think that is a frightening prospect.” The Scottish National party “do not even want our country to succeed, that is why it is so calamitous”, he said. Cameron asked voters to question whether their road bypass would be built or their local hospital would get the cash it needs. “Frankly this is a group of people that would not care what happened in the rest of the country. The rest of the United Kingdom – Wales, Northern Ireland and England – would not get a look-in, and that is the prospect we face if we don’t get the majority Conservative government that is within our reach.” With the Conservatives trailing in some polls but ahead in others, Cameron is maximising the threat of the SNP holding sway at Westminster to frighten potential Labour voters back into the Tory camp. Related: Conservatives take four-point lead over Labour in Opinium/Observer poll In some of his most vehement language, he came close to suggesting the SNP had no right to influence Westminster politics. “The SNP do not want to come to Westminster to contribute to a government. They want to come to Westminster to break up our country,” he said. Labour was already planning to cancel road-building programmes, he said, adding: “Imagine what it would be like if SNP MPs are backing up a weak prime minister.” He said the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, needed to rule out any arrangement with the SNP. He has already said there would be no coalition, but the SNP has said it would be possible to have a loose arrangement on a vote-by-vote basis. Earlier on the same programme, the SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, repeated that she would not do a deal with Cameron under any circumstances. She also said it would be undemocratic for her to to rule out a second referendum on Scottish independence in the next parliament. Related: Nicola Sturgeon: ruling out new Scottish referendum would be undemocratic She said: “If we work together we can lock David Cameron out of Downing Street. And then in terms of the influence that the SNP on Scotland’s behalf could have, that doesn’t all come down to a Queen’s speech, it’s about the influence you exert over the lifetime of a parliament. “It is possible to change the direction of the government on individual issues without bringing that government down. That puts a party like the SNP, if we have that influence, into a very, very strong, powerful position.” There has been pressure from some Labour leftwingers for Sturgeon to rule out an independence referendum in the next parliament, making it easier for the two parties to make a deal. The Labour shadow leader of the house, Angela Eagle, appeared to open the door to talks with the SNP on aspects of a Labour programme, telling the BBC on Sunday: “We’ll speak to any party that has got representation in the House of Commons in order to try to build a majority for a Queen’s speech that the country desperately needs for a change of government, so that we can have a country where the economy works for all working people and not just a few at the top.” Cameron refused to rule out a deal with Ukip, saying he had no plans for one and that he was only 23 seats short of a majority. He said he would be taking his argument to the people. He said Ukip would be lucky to get one seat, and that he was not going to talk about anything except securing a majority. Admitting he was animated and angry, he said: “It’s not a negative point to say the economy would not be as strong as it is if Miliband was in charge, because Miliband had opposed every single reform.” He defended his plans for a new right-to-buy policy for housing association tenants, and that the profits councils would make from the sales would be ploughed back into building more homes. He said he was making a retail offer on Lloyds Bank shares for the first time because the government had put £20bn into rescuing the bank. “I want to get the money back. We have already recovered billions, but at the same time people being able to own shares in healthy successful British banks is the kind of country we should be building,” Cameron said. He defended the growth in the use of food banks, and said it was down to the government advertising them more prominently at jobcentres. Pressed on specific cases of hardship caused by sanctions on welfare benefits, he said: “If you are asking whether it is right to ask people to turn up for interviews, fill in a CV or to apply for a job … before getting benefit then that is right.” He insisted he looked at individual cases and pointed out there was a hardship fund, but rejected an overall review of benefit sanctions for the unemployed and insisted that the current system was compassionate. |