General Election 2015: Ed Balls says Labour deal with SNP would be 'betrayal of English vote'
The remarks suggest Labour is worried that speculation surrounding a deal could alienate voters
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Your support makes all the difference.A deal between Labour and the SNP which favoured Scotland after the general election would be a “betrayal of the English vote”, Ed Balls has admitted.
The shadow Chancellor said yesterday that his party would refuse to sign up to an agreement with the SNP if the nationalists insisted on policies which would benefit Scotland ahead of England.
Ed Miliband has repeatedly refused to rule out some sort of deal with the SNP in the likely event of another hung Parliament after 7 May. But Mr Balls’ remarks, made to a local newspaper in Wolverhampton, suggest that Labour is worried that speculation about a possible deal may be alienating its core English voters.
Mr Balls said: “There is absolutely no possibility of any vote being put to Parliament or any measure in a Labour budget which would in any way disadvantage the West Midlands or any other part of England because that’s what the SNP demand. No way. Unequivocal. I’m not going to do it and Labour isn’t going to do it.”
He said Labour had been “very clear” that a formal coalition with the SNP was out of the question, adding that Nicola Sturgeon’s party “can’t stand up for the interests of people in England because they want to break up the United Kingdom”.
He continued: “We’re going to put a vote to Parliament to abolish the bedroom tax. I want a Labour majority to get that through. If the SNP want to vote that’s up to them.
“But the idea them saying that we want you to advantage Scotland against the West Midlands to win their support, that would be a betrayal of the West Midlands, a betrayal of the English vote and we will not do it.”
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