The First Minister insisted today that his party would not prop up a Tory Government at Westminster in the event of a hung Parliament.

Alex Salmond said that the SNP would seek to extract benefits for Scotland issue by issue but, he told BBC Radio Scotland: “We won’t enter into any coalitions with anyone, not Labour and not Tory.”

He said that Labour’s accusation that the SNP would prop up the Tories amounted to Labour accepting that it would l not be the biggest party at Westminster after the general election.

The concessions the SNP would seek at Westminster were more economic and financial than constitutional — for which Holyrood would be the main battleground — the SNP leader said.

In an interview on Good Morning Scotland, Mr Salmond said that expanding the SNP ranks at Westminster to at least 20 MPs was achievable but “a tough target”.

“The European election is an indication that if we put the right message across and work hard, an advance on that sort of scale for Scotland is possible," he said.

An enlarged group of SNP MPs in a hung parliament would be able to achieve substantial gains for Scotland, Mr Salmond said. “Of all the politicians in these islands, I’m probably the one with most experience of minority government.”

He said that the first act of a new government at Westminster after the general election wpuld be to introduce an emergency Budget. “Budgets have many votes, and in each of these votes in a balanced Parliament there will be the opportunity to win gains for Scotland,” Mr Salmond said.

He cited a continued acceleration of capital spending for Scotland as an example of a concession that could be extracted in a hung Parliament. And he pointed to the influence of two Green MSPs at Holyrood as an example of the clout that could be brought to bear in Budget talks.

“In a balanced Parliament situation, you are looking for economic and social gains that can be won by a bloc of SNP MPs working for Scotland. I think the constitutional issue in Scotland, whether it be the referendum on independence, the progression of Scotland to have real powers in the Parliament, that’s the thing that’s going to be advanced within the Scottish Parliament context.”

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