Miliband rules out coalition with SNP

Ed Miliband last night attempted to shore up Labour's vote in the final days of the election campaign, insisting he would rather not be prime minister than do any form of deal with the Scottish National party.

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A snap poll conducted by ICM for the Guardian found that 44 per cent of viewers thought David Cameron was "best on the night", with 38 per cent favouring Mr Miliband and 19 per cent Nick Clegg.

Mr Miliband tried to galvanise his party's support as the election enters its last days by declaring: "If the price of having a Labour government is a deal or coalition with the SNP, it's not going to happen."

Mr Miliband hopes the new form of words will help stop a draining away of Labour support in England and Wales, as David Cameron pushes home his claim that the Labour leader would be in the pocket of Nicola Sturgeon's SNP.

He was also attempting to shore up Labour support in Scotland - where the party is facing a near wipeout - by confronting voters with the idea that an SNP vote could allow Mr Cameron into Downing Street.

His intervention appeared to support claims by the Tories that Labour is starting to lose support in England, with a string of opinion polls suggesting Mr Cameron may finally be starting to edge ahead.

By ruling out a coalition or any other form of deal with the SNP, Mr Miliband was effectively calling the nationalists' bluff. Labour has not excluded talking to the Lib Dems.

If Labour failed to win a Commons majority, Mr Miliband envisages forming a minority government, daring the SNP to vote him down. Ms Sturgeon has already said she would "lock David Cameron out of Downing Street".

"Every day there would be a negotiation on every vote and they would be held to ransom," said William Hague, former Tory leader.

Mr Miliband's move was the most dramatic moment in the 90-minute exchanges with a live studio audience, which also saw him defending the last Labour government's spending on hospitals, schools and children's centres.

< > The three-way session ended with Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat leader, saying he would "never apologise for the plucky and brave decision to put party before country" when he joined a coalition with Mr Cameron in 2010.

Mr Cameron, who went first of the three leaders, faced questions based around "trust": whether the Conservatives would preserve the NHS and whether it would protect the vulnerable from welfare cuts.

Mr Cameron said he did not want to make a series of changes to child benefit alleged by his Lib Dem coalition partners, but he stopped short of categorically ruling them out.

Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat Treasury chief secretary, said on Thursday that the Tories had planned in government to cut the benefit for families of more than two children, as well as from parents aged 16 to 19.

But Mr Cameron said: "I don't want to do that. The report out today is something that I rejected at the time as prime minister and I reject it again today."

He added: "Child benefit to me is one of the most important benefits there is ... it is the key part of families' budgets in this country."

But Mr Cameron said he did want to cut the welfare budget further, saying that his party's plans to find another £12bn worth of savings was an important part of boosting employment.

He told the audience: "If you believe as I do we should go on reforming welfare and making sure work always pays ... and keeping people's taxes down, that's my programme."

Mr Cameron was also criticised by audience members for not spelling out how he intended to make £12bn of welfare cuts in the first two years of a Conservative government.

But he defended his party against criticisms that they had overseen a rise in food-bank usage, saying: "I'm not saying everything is perfect, I'm saying we have not finished the work of rebuilding the economy."

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