David Cameron steps up attacks on Labour-SNP alliance

David Cameron stepped up his attacks on a possible Labour-SNP alliance after the general election, ignoring a chorus of voices from across the political spectrum who warned he could risk the union by demonising a legitimately elected group of nationalist MPs.

Seat projections show that the Scottish Nationalists could hold the balance of power in Westminster after the election, and that Ed Miliband would need their votes if he were to try to form a Labour-led government. Mr Miliband has ruled out a formal coalition with the SNP but not a looser alliance.

Former Conservative prime minister John Major became the latest senior Tory to launch a broadside at a putative Labour government supported by the SNP, telling an audience in the West Midlands on Tuesday that it would be a "recipe for mayhem".

Mr Miliband reacted by accusing Mr Cameron of "playing fast and loose with the Union" and "setting England against Scotland", but the prime minister renewed his attacks.

"Now the SNP aren't just an old political party with a bunch of ideas; they are a party dedicated to one thing: the breaking up of the UK and the breaking up of our country. They don't come to Westminster with a list of interesting demands to make our country stronger, they come with one intention only - to break the UK up and create an independent Scotland, so I fear for our country if this were to happen," Mr Cameron said at an event in Yorkshire.

The prime minister dismissed concern from Lord Forsyth, a former Tory Scottish secretary, that Conservative attempts to undermine the legitimacy of SNP MPs ran counter to the arguments deployed by unionists in the campaign last year to persuade Scots to vote against independence.

"You can't just say: 'Oh, it's outrageous that Scotland has sent all these nationalists into the House of Commons'," Lord Forsyth told The Scotsman newspaper. "We spent the whole of the referendum campaign arguing that we were one family and there will be nationalist MPs at Westminster."

Lord Tebbit, another former cabinet secretary, added to the criticism of Mr Cameron, telling the BBC that it was "pointless to irritate Scots just by shouting at them from Westminster".

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Mr Cameron was depicting SNP MPs as an "illegitimate force", he said in an article in the New Statesman. "These issues are too serious for 'Flashman' politics," he argued.

Mr Miliband welcomed the intervention by Lord Forsyth, saying that many other right-thinking Conservatives felt "deeply queasy" about his comments.

"His has become a campaign where he will say anything and he will stop at nothing."

But Sir Malcolm Rifkind, another former Scotland secretary, said that it would be a "dereliction of duty" for senior Tories not to speak out about the impact of letting the SNP into a power-sharing deal in Westminster.

Sir John Major on Tuesday warned about the consequences of a Labour-SNP deal, claiming Mr Miliband would be left open to "a daily dose of political blackmail".

<>Yet on the issues that the SNP care most deeply about - Trident and ending austerity - they would not be able to bring down Labour without Tory support. Since the Conservatives support Trident and continued austerity, Labour believes that the warnings about a risk posed by the SNP to UK defence in particular have been greatly exaggerated.

Alistair Darling, former chancellor, said an alliance was not going to happen: "It's for the birds." But Labour could still have to rely on the SNP for ad hoc support for votes: the nationalist party has by contrast ruled out any co-operation with a Tory-led government.

The Conservatives have issued posters featuring a diminutive Mr Miliband literally sitting in the pocket of the SNP leadership.

Jim Murphy, leader of Labour in Scotland, accused Mr Cameron and Sir John of playing a "tawdry and desperate" game with the electorate.

"We have not one but two Tory prime ministers not talking about their party but talking up the SNP," he said. "They need someone else to harm the Labour party for them."

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