The return of 'Project Fear'? Danny Alexander says Scots are terrified by the rise of the SNP

Meanwhile Jim Murphy talks up David Cameron's glee at the SNP's rise

(AFP/Getty Images)

A senior unionist politician has claimed that Scottish people are terrified by the rise of the SNP – despite successive polls showing that most are planning to vote for the party.

A survey today by pollster Ipsos MORI found that the nationalists are on course to win every single seat in Scotland, taking 54% of the vote.

But Liberal Democrat minister Danny Alexander said this afternoon that the latest poll would “strike fear” into the hearts of people across the country.

Mr Alexander’s party, which is polling on 5%, would be left alongside Labour and the Conservatives with zero Scottish seats if the snapshot were repeated on election day.

The SNP is set to dominate in Scotland

“I think this poll in a sense will strike fear into the hearts of a lot of people around Scotland, because what we know again and again from the nationalists … is they see this election on the road to independence,” he told BBC News.

Mr Alexander’s invocation of “fear” recalls a description by pro-independence supporters that the unionist campaign in last year’s referendum amounted to “Project Fear”.

The treasury chief secretary added that he did not think the poll would be repeated on election day.

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy took to Sky News to argue that victory for the SNP would leave Conservative politicians celebrating.

“If this poll is repeated on election day, David Cameron will be uncorking his champagne, because he might cling onto power, not because Scotland’s gone out and voted Tory, but because Scotland has voted against the Labour party and made sure David Cameron has the biggest party,” he said.

The nationalists have said they will vote to remove David Cameron from Downing Street under all circumstances, however.

The SNP’s rise in the polls at Westminster came almost immediately after the end of the Scottish independence referendum campaign.

The party has also taken more support from Scottish Labour since Westminster MP Jim Murphy became its leader.

Both Mr Alexander and Mr Murphy are set to lose their seats at the general election, according to local surveys of their constituencies conducted by Lord Ashcroft.

The last time any party secured a majority of the popular vote in a UK-wide election was 1931.

In reaction to the latest poll, the SNP’s Deputy Leader Stewart Hosie said: "The SNP's message to everyone in Scotland - people who voted No last year, as well as those who voted Yes, and people who are considering voting SNP for the first time - is that together we can unite to make Scotland stronger and the UK more progressive.”