General Election 2015: Nicola Sturgeon says UK is 'hungry and restless' for a party like the SNP

Sturgeon said her party would be a 'constructive' influence in Westminster

Sturgeon says an alliance between the SNP and Labour would deliver an era of 'progressive' politics (Getty Images)

The rest of the UK is “hungry and restless” for a party like the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon has said as she sought to reassure voters outside Scotland that an alliance with Labour would deliver a new era of “progressive” politics at Westminster.

In what appeared to be a land grab for Labour’s forgotten hard left, the SNP leader suggested that Ed Miliband’s party was too close to the Conservatives politically and said her inbox was “heaving” with messages from people outside Scotland asking if they could vote SNP.

Launching her party’s manifesto in Edinburgh, Scotland’s First Minister promised voters in the rest of the UK that if the SNP held the balance of power after the general election, it would use its influence at Westminster “constructively”. She told them: “Your views do matter to me.”

She said David Cameron had made a “huge tactical and strategic mistake” by assuming that people outside Scotland were frightened of the SNP, claiming that they were in fact crying out for a more “progressive”, left wing alternative to the main parties.

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“The fact that neither Labour or the Tories seem capable of winning a majority at this election…does suggest very strongly that people in England want something different from what both are offering now,” she said.

“The state of the opinion polls I think sends a very strong message that neither of those parties are offering what people want. I think in terms of Labour, that’s because they’re not offering a clear enough difference to the Tories.”

Asked whether she would encourage people south of the border to vote for Labour to ensure that the SNP could play a decisive role at Westminster, she replied that they should simply back the most progressive candidate.

During a glitzy launch at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena which made the most of her new found stardom in British politics, Ms Sturgeon took almost 20 minutes to address the subject of an independent Scotland.

"The SNP will always support independence – but this election is not about independence,” she stressed. The manifesto did not mention a second referendum, which is likely to feature in the party’s Scottish Parliamentary election campaign next year.

Dismissing as “irrelevant” Labour’s suggestions that her party’s demands for Scotland to be given full control of its economy would leave a £7.6 billion hole in the country’s finances, she said this would not happen for a number of years.

Although she is not standing in the general election herself, she positioned herself as the UK’s champion of anti-austerity politics and attacked George Osborne’s management of the economy, which she said had lowered living standards and pushed more children into poverty. “When a policy is failing, it is time to change it,” she said.

With two weeks to go until the election, polls predict that the SNP could win as many as 50 of Scotland’s 59 Westminster seats, leaving Labour neutered north of the border. However, the party’s manifesto held out an olive branch to Mr Miliband by supporting the reintroduction of the 50p top rate of tax, a mansion tax and a tax on bankers’ bonuses – three key Labour policies.

Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy described the document as a “say one thing, do another” manifesto. “They claim to support a UK-wide mansion tax at the same time as committing to cutting Scotland off from UK-wide taxes,” he added.

Mr Cameron warned yesterday that a Labour government propped up by the SNP would be a “match made in hell” for the UK economy. But Ms Sturgeon said her party would use its influence “responsibly and constructively” and would not seek to disrupt Westminster by blocking spending.

“I also want to make a pledge today to people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland,” she said. “Even though you can’t vote SNP, your views do matter to me. And you have a right to know what to expect of my party if the votes of the Scottish people give us influence in a hung parliament.

“So my promise to you is this: If the SNP emerges from this election in a position of influence, we will exercise that influence responsibly and constructively. And we will exercise it in the interests of people, not just in Scotland, but across the UK.”

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