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General Election 2015: Sturgeon orders key members of Holyrood cabinet to head straight to London after campaign to 'begin negotiations'

The Scottish National Party is preparing for post-election talks despite Labour leader Ed Miliband ruling out a formal deal with the party

Tuesday 05 May 2015 10:13 BST

Nicola Sturgeon has ordered key members of her Holyrood cabinet to be in London immediately after the election to “begin negotiations” with Labour (PA)

Nicola Sturgeon has ordered key members of her Holyrood cabinet, along with nationalist MPs with experience of Westminster, to be in London immediately after the election to “begin negotiations”, according to senior sources.

The Scottish National Party is preparing for post-election talks despite Labour leader Ed Miliband ruling out a formal deal with the party.

Ms Sturgeon has stated that she will personally lead any negotiations if her party holds the balance of power after the arithmetic of the election is known. Alongside the SNP leader herself, key members of the negotiating team will include the deputy leader Stewart Hosie, and Angus Robertson, the current group leader at Westminster and spokesman on defence and foreign affairs.

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Others figures less well known in Westminster who have been ordered to go south this coming weekend include Holyrood’s current minister for Europe, Humza Yousaf. Two other MSPs said to be on “relatively good terms” with Labour in Scotland have also been told to be in London.

Nicola Sturgeon gets a hug from a small boy while campaigning in Kirkcaldy, former prime minister Gordon Brown’s old constituency (Getty)

According to sources, the former leader and first minister, Alex Salmond, will be given a specific task, although it was not made clear what role he will have.

Mr Yousaf’s inclusion is related to his connections with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He regularly meets key aides inside the FCO in London as part of his European portfolio.

Both Mr Robertson and Mr Hosie are expected to easily hold their respective Moray and Dundee seats in the near wipe-out of Labour and the Liberal Democrats north of the border which is forecast for 7 May.

Despite Mr Miliband repeatedly ruling out a coalition or deal of any kind with the nationalists, the SNP believes its predicted powerbase at Westminster, which polls suggest could be over 50 MPs, will not be ignored if Labour wants to form the next government.

Those ordered to be in London by Saturday suggest that the SNP leadership believe discussions with Labour could be lengthy. Any deal with the Conservatives has been ruled out by Ms Sturgeon.

The Independent was told the inclusion of Holyrood ministers was because the SNP did not want to present themselves as “minor party” and instead wanted to “emphasise our credentials as Scotland’s elected government”.

In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15

Show all 10

1/10In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15

In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15

Andrew Hawkins (ComRes)

“The sclerotic, negative and risk-averse campaigns from the two main parties make it hard to see how much can alter. So, my prediction is the same – Tories get most votes, but Labour better placed to form a government. Then a long spell of political and perhaps constitutional chaos.”

Andrew Hawkins

In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15

Joe Twyman (YouGov)

“‘The world is changed, I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air.’ So begins the film version of Lord of the Rings. – which is, of course, the famous tale of an epic journey culminating in the final battle between good and evil. The world of British politics has certainly changed. “With a few days still to go I expect that more change could still occur, but it is likely to be minor and the national level and more concentrated on the ground in the key marginal constituencies where the Hold Your Nose or Cut It Off to Spite Your Face™ message pushes home. I expect the Conservatives to be the beneficiaries, but it will not be anything like enough to make a difference to the overall result.”

In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15

Ben Page (Ipsos MORI)

“As the only pollster to correctly predict a hung parliament last time – and then foolishly change my prediction when I saw ALL the others were saying a Conservative majority – I am going to say hung parliament again. With more Conservative than Labour seats. The SNP won’t wipe out the Labour Party completely in Scotland but will get them down to single figures. The Lib Dems will out perform their poll numbers and should get circa 26 seats – or more. Ukip will be delighted with four seats at most, probably fewer.”

In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15

Rick Nye (Populus)

“Tories largest party, comfortably.”

In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15

Nick Moon (GfK)

“SNP now 50, Ukip 2; Tories to be largest party in votes and seats, but still a Labour minority government.”

In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15

Damian Lyons Lowe (Survation)

“Conservatives – I’m upgrading my seats prediction to 270-280 from 260-280. Labour – downgrading again to 265-275, based on the SNPs’ continued surge and Conservatives doing better in our seat-voting question as the election draws near and views are localised: SNP 45; Lib Dems 30; Ukip 6; Green 1; Respect 1. Ed Miliband will be the next prime minister.”

In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15

Michelle Harrison (TNS)

“We enter the last few days of this campaign pretty much where we started. This election represents what happens when a country is not confident about its economic future, unsure of its place in the world, and fed up with the state of its politics. “The political stalemate at the centre, and the fragmentation of the traditional party system, has left us with a set of polls incapable of telling what will ultimately happen, when there are so many potential scenarios. What we can feel confident about though is that Thursday will be a seismic night for politics in Scotland. When the votes are counted, we expect the Tories to be the largest party, but that Labour should still have the greatest chance of forming a government. But how do we measure the advantage for the Conservatives of already being in No 10 in the days after the general election? The real drama will start on Friday.”

In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15

James Endersby (Opinium Research)

“We saw some movement to the Tories, but the two big parties are back to being neck and neck with the Conservatives a hair’s breadth ahead. How this translates into seats or a coalition is unclear but based on our numbers we’d put the Conservatives ahead of Labour on vote share but the two parties within 10 seats of each other in the new House of Commons. The maths here gives Ed Miliband more options than David Cameron, so it might be sensible for voters to look up Ramsay MacDonald when trying to make sense of the result!”

In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15

Martin Boon (ICM)

“The Tories appear to have developed a little momentum, which may or may not make any difference. I sense the now traditional herding of pollsters has begun, and the polls will coalesce around a Tory lead of between two and six points. I’ll guess at 36 per cent for the Tories and 32 per cent for Labour. The fight for third place could go either way. Beyond that I just don’t know what will happen and defer to the academics and gamblers when it comes to seat projections, and indeed when it comes to who on earth is going to form our next government. I’d like to apologise to Independent on Sunday readers for fence-sitting, but as I’ve said repeatedly of late: How should I know? I’m only a pollster.”

In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15

Lord Ashcroft (Lord Ashcroft Polls)

He refuses to make predictions. “My polls are snapshots, not predictions.”

Rex

Ed Miliband told the BBC’s Question Time debate last week that he would rule out forming a minority Labour government if that could only be achieved with the help of the SNP. He also ruled out a looser “confidence and supply” arrangement. “It’s not going to happen, and I couldn’t make it clearer,” he told the BBC audience.

His comments were rounded on by Ms Sturgeon who said “voters in Scotland will never forgive Labour “ if they rejected SNP support and allowed the Conservatives back into Downing Street.

Both Mr Miliband and the party’s Scottish leader, Jim Murphy, said if Labour formed a minority administration, there would be a “Labour Queen’s Speech and a Labour Budget” and it would be left to the SNP to decide if they backed it or not.

The common ground between Labour and the SNP remains unclear. Ms Sturgeon told a televised Scottish leaders’ debate on Sunday night that the SNP would be prepared to vote down a Labour budget if anti-austerity policies were absent.

Asked to comment on their negotiation plans, the SNP said: “There are no such plans – our entire focus is talking to the electorate to maximise Scotland’s voice at Westminster with a big team of SNP MPs.”

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