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Ed Miliband has clashed with Nicola Sturgeon after she said she would only back him as PM if he rejected austerity and was “better than the Tories”.
The SNP leader said she wanted a “progressive” alliance with Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood and Green Party leader Natalie Bennett reports BBC.
Mr Miliband, Labour leader, said he intended to win a majority and would not form a coalition with the SNP.
UKIP’s Nigel Farage also clashed with Mr Miliband in the BBC election debate.
The debate finished with Mr Miliband issuing a direct challenge to Mr Cameron to take part in a debate with him, telling him: “If you believe this election is about leadership then debate me one-on-one.”
The Labour leader came out on top in a snap poll. In a survey of 1,013 viewers conducted by Survation for the Daily Mirror, 35% judged Mr Miliband to be the winner, against 31% for Ms Sturgeon, 27% for Mr Farage, 5% for Ms Bennett and 2% for Ms Wood. The Scottish part of the survey sample gave the debate to Ms Sturgeon, with 68%, to Mr Miliband’s 17%.
During the 90-minute programme the Labour leader faced repeated calls from Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Wood to reject austerity and form a “progressive” alliance with their parties and the Greens to keep the Conservatives out of government.
The two nationalist leaders and Ms Bennett said they would not prop up a Conservative government.
Ms Sturgeon claimed Mr Miliband was “so scared to be bold” that he was “not even doing the right thing by the NHS”, telling the audience that “if Labour won’t be bold enough on its own, I think people should vote for parties that will hold Labour to account and make them bolder”.