nicola sturgeon yesterday vowed to work with labour to ‘lock the tories out’ of power in an extraordinary speech in london, scotland’s first minister claimed voters across the uk would welcome her party’s influence at westminster, saying she would end austerity but, following mounting pressure from senior colleagues, ed miliband last night tried to draw a line under speculation about a labour snp government by ruling out a formal coalition labour leader ed miliband said a formal coalition with the snp 'will not happen'   but failed to rule out forming a looser alliance on a vote by vote basis  the labour leader said there would be ‘no snp ministers’ in any government he leads after may’s general election but mr miliband pointedly refused to rule out a deal that would see the resurgent scottish nationalists prop up a minority labour government in key commons votes – the preferred option of miss sturgeon ‘this was a lot of hype to rule out something no one was proposing,’ the first minister said ‘mr miliband’s statement is absolutely fine from our point of view, because formal coalition with seats in the uk government has never been our preference ‘but working with labour in a looser arrangement, i certainly wouldn’t rule out because i want to see snp mps in the house of commons pushing for progressive change i also don’t want to see david cameron re elected 'as long as there are more snp and labour mps than there are tory mps, we can lock the tories out of government, there is no question about that’ pollsters suggest the snp is on course for an unprecedented breakthrough at the general election, winning dozens of labour seats and depriving mr miliband of any chance of a majority john curtice, of strathclyde university and one of the country’s leading election experts, said the snp appeared on the brink of winning 45 of scotland’s 59 seats ms sturgeon, appearing on itv's lorraine show, claimed that if labour ruled out a deal with the snp they would be saying they were happy to see david cameron 'waltz back in to number 10' ‘that means the formation of any government after may 7 will be with the acquiescence of the snp,’ the professor added ‘mr miliband’s chances may indeed depend on him coming to some arrangement with the snp’ electoral deals between two or more parties can take various guises a full scale coalition is a power sharing deal of the kind struck by david cameron and nick clegg, with a shared programme and ministers from different parties one step down from a coalition is an arrangement called ‘confidence and supply’ in exchange for concessions to its interests, a smaller party agrees to back a larger one in key commons votes a still looser arrangement is possible, whereby a minority labour government would negotiate with the snp to win its backing on every major vote william hague, the leader of the commons, said an issue by issue deal between labour and the snp would be ‘even worse’ ‘every day the snp could come back with more demands,’ said the tory mp miss sturgeon, speaking at the london school of economics, set out a shopping list of demands for a deal with labour, including £180billion of extra borrowing, ditching the trident nuclear deterrent, and billions more in benefits for the working poor she said the snp would ensure that any government it supports offered an ‘alternative to austerity’ in the past, the snp imposed a ‘self denying ordinance’ on its mps which prevented them from voting on most ‘english only’ issues at westminster but, with the possibility of a power sharing deal in sight, this principle has been ditched miss sturgeon yesterday said snp mps were entitled to dictate policy at westminster in return for their votes ‘we have clear and constructive views on many aspects of uk policy which affect scotland deeply – views which we know are often shared by many people elsewhere in the uk and we intend to bring those ideas forward in a positive spirit,’ she said she insisted that voters in england could trust her not to use a hung parliament as part of a plan to make another attempt to break up the country last night an icm poll for the guardian revealed 43 per cent of voters are worried about the snp determining who runs the uk labour leader in scotland jim murphy (left) said the party would not make any 'backroom deals' with the snp 
snp green in england and plaid cymru wales labour tories sturgeon uk scotland
snp chief said she would vote green in england and plaid cymru in wales . but she called for deal with labour after the election to keep the tories out . ms sturgeon she she would impose left wing policies across the uk . she said the snp wanted to do more than just serve scotland's interests 