“I don’t need a coalition with them” – Miliband quashes “nonsense” talk of SNP deal

Ed Miliband was in a bullish mood when rejecting the notion of an SNP coalition last night, describing the Tories’ attacks on the subject as “nonsense”. The Labour leader took questions from a studio audience live on BBC Three’s Free Speech programme for an hour, on any topic they wanted to ask.

Probed several times about the possibility of a coalition with the SNP (suggesting the Tory attacks have had some cut-through with the public), Miliband replied:

“I don’t want a coalition with them, I don’t need a coalition with them, I’m not planning for a coalition with them – I couldn’t be clearer. They’ve even ruled out a coalition with us!”

Miliband was also asked what he would do if he had to go into a coalition with the Conservatives, to which he replied simply: “I wouldn’t.”

You can hear Miliband on the SNP deal here:

Results to a LabourList survey published this morning suggest that readers do not want Miliband to rule out how he might work with the SNP after the election.

The latest polling in Scotland remains bleak reading for Labour supporters, meanwhile. Despite a slight fall in support for the SNP, Scottish Labour still trail the Nationalists by 19 points in today’s YouGov poll for The Times (£).

The results for Scotland are:

SNP 46% (-3), Labour 27% (nc), Tories 18% (+3), Lib Dems 4% (nc)

SNP MP Angus Robertson has said that foreign policy, including scrapping Trident, would be important policy areas in post-election talks with Labour.

You can watch Ed Miliband’s full appearance on Free Speech for the next 29 days on BBC iPlayer.