SNP leader branded 'an irrelevance' at general election

Published on Tuesday 27 October 2009 21:30

FIRST Minister Alex Salmond has been branded an irrelevance by David Cameron.

The Tory leader was asked to respond to Mr Salmond's threat to make London dance to a Scottish tune if the Conservatives won the next general election.

Mr Cameron replied that he was "all in favour of Scottish dancing" but added: "The reason he is making these noises is that he knows that he is actually quite irrelevant in a UK general election.

"People in Scotland will be going to the polls to vote for a British government and there are two potential outcomes: Gordon Brown and Labour continuing in office or the Conservatives bringing the change the UK needs to see.

"The one outcome there can't be in a British general election is an SNP government. Alex Salmond isn't even standing in this election, so he knows he is quite irrelevant in this election.

"He is battling for relevance and trying to say that somehow he is going to have a pivotal role when it is not an election that even involves him. That is why he is saying what he is saying."

The Tory leader has already shrugged off Mr Salmond's demands that the SNP be included in a televised leaders' debate ahead of the general election.

Yesterday, the SNP hit back at Mr Cameron, saying that it was the Conservatives who were irrelevant north of the Border. Angus Robertson, the SNP's Westminster leader, said the general election in Scotland would be a two-horse race between Labour and the Nationalists.

"Whether the next UK government is Labour or Tory, Tory or Labour, the best result for Scotland will be a balanced or hung Westminster parliament – a minority government, with a Scottish block of 20 SNP MPs fighting for and winning key objectives for Scotland," he said.

Labour MP for Stirling Anne McGuire also waded into the row, saying that only Gordon Brown or Mr Cameron could be prime minister.

But she warned that voting SNP could deliver a Tory government by the back door, saying: "Every vote the SNP takes away from Labour will have David Cameron grinning with delight."