Tories Warn Of Labour Deal With SNP

20 April 2015, 08:22 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Labour is preparing to do a post-election deal with the SNP, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson will warn today.

She will urge Labour voters to "wake up'' to the threat posed by Nicola Sturgeon's party, as she calls on the SNP leader to rule out a second independence referendum.

The Tory leader will give a speech in Glasgow, highlighting the choices facing voters on May 7, as the General Election campaign continues.

Labour's Angela Eagle, shadow leader of the House of Commons, has said her party would speak to any other party represented in the Commons to ''try and build a majority'' for its Queen's Speech, should they be the largest party.

Meanwhile, Ms Sturgeon has refused to give a guarantee that there will not be a second referendum for the lifetime of the next Parliament.

The First Minister said it would be up to the people of Scotland to decide if or when another vote on independence takes place.

In her speech tomorrow, Ruth Davidson will say: "The reality of what Scotland is facing is beginning to sink in.

"Of course Labour is trying to deny it - Ed Miliband has to while Scottish Labour MPs are fighting for their lives.

"But we know what it is going on. And now Angela Eagle has confirmed it.

"The moment those Scottish Labour MPs are gone, Ed Miliband will be straight on the phone to Nicola Sturgeon asking for her opening bid.

"And a few months after we Scots decided to remain within Britain, we will see the future of our United Kingdom being bartered away in a back room.''

She will add: "Nicola Sturgeon is an accomplished politician.

"She knows that the best way to win in two weeks' time is to de-risk the SNP. Thus she tours London's TV studios pledging to be a constructive and positive partner to people across the UK.

"Surely it's time that Labour woke up and realised that the SNP's first and last priority will always be separation.''

"If Nicola Sturgeon really wants to prove her constructive credentials, there's a test she has to meet.

"It's to accept - right now, before the election - that the United Kingdom is staying together for the next generation, in line with her own pledge, and in line with the decision made by the people of Scotland last year.

"How can people all across the UK possibly be asked to believe a leader who claims to have the interests of a country at heart which she still wants to break up?''