Sturgeon pledges to help Miliband into Number 10

Nicola Sturgeon has promised to help Ed Miliband to become prime minister, while leaving open the possibility that her party could call for another independence referendum after 2016.

During a spirited and occasionally irascible televised debate between the leaders of the four main parties in Scotland, the first minister spelt out her determination to help Labour into government.

She told an audience at Edinburgh's Assembly Rooms: "We will fight to keep David Cameron out of Downing Street . . . I'm offering to help make Ed Miliband prime minister."

With polls suggesting a hung parliament is likely after May's election, much of the focus was on possible coalitions. Ms Sturgeon said she did not want to enter into coalition with Labour but made it clear she would vote to bring down a Tory government, challenging Jim Murphy, the Labour leader in Scotland, to promise the same.

Labour has been keen to avoid promising to bring down a minority Conservative government, for fear of undermining its own argument that minority governments can be stable.

Ms Sturgeon's comments came days after a government memo was leaked claiming the Scottish National party leader had told the French ambassador in a private conversation that she would rather Mr Cameron became prime minister. She and the French embassy have denied the remarks were made.

David Cameron, the prime minister, hinted to the Independent newspaper on Tuesday that he believed the Lib Dems had leaked the memo. Lib Dems accuse the prime minister of playing the "blame game". Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem Scotland secretary, has called the leak "one of those things".

But having won plaudits for her performance during the UK leaders' debate last week, the SNP leader drew groans when she failed to rule out promising another independence referendum after 2016.

While she said her party would not go into May's election promising a referendum, having lost one last year, when asked about her plans for the party's 2016 Holyrood manifesto, she said: "That's another matter."

The debate was the biggest chance yet for Mr Murphy to win back some of the momentum his party has lost to the SNP in recent months.

He made an impassioned attack on coalition policies, arguing: "I think it's disgusting that parents go to work and on their way home from work they stop off at food banks."

But he also appeared to veer off Labour's economic script when he cited the Institute of Fiscal Studies in saying there was "no need" for further cuts after 2016. The party's leadership says it intends to keep cutting all non-protected departments until the deficit is erased at the end of the parliament.

Mark Diffley, director of Ipsos Mori Scotland, the polling company, said: "This was much more difficult for Nicola tonight than last week."

But he added: "It was really, really important for [Mr Murphy] to land a few blows tonight and I think he did all right. But it didn't feel like a knockout blow either way."

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Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, also won praise for her performance, arguing that the Conservatives could be best trusted to protect the union given their refusal to work with the SNP.

But much of what she said was pitched to the left of her own party in Westminster. Pointing to the main achievements of the coalition, she argued: "Under this government we have seen inequality fall, we have seen pensioner poverty fall, we have seen the number of children living in workless households fall."

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