RUTH Davidson has said the idea that Alex Salmond might be the UK's next deputy prime minister "scares the bejesus out of me".
The Scottish Conservative leader said a minority Labour government propped up by the SNP after the general election in May would be unworkable.
In an interview on BBC Radio Scotland, she said Labour leader Ed Miliband was "weak" and added: "The idea of Ed Miliband as Prime Minister with, I don't know, Stewart Hosie, who knows... Alex Salmond as Deputy Prime Minister scares the bejesus out of me.
"And do you know why? Because I don't think Ed Miliband would stand up to the concessions that Alex Salmond would wring from him."
The SNP, who aim to win more seats than Labour in Scotland at the election, have talked up the possibility of a power-sharing deal with their main Holyrood rivals if Mr Miliband becomes Prime Minister without an overall majority.
Mr Salmond is bidding to return to Westminster as MP for Gordon.
Also speaking on the BBC yesterday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon insisted a large bloc of Nationalist MPs would ensure "Labour doesn't take Scotland for granted."
She claimed: "We could force a re-think on austerity, we could force a re-think on Trident and we could make sure those new (Scottish Parliament) powers are delivered."
A Scottish Labour spokesman said: "If Ruth Davidson wanted to do the best for Scotland she'd be supporting Ed Miliband's Mansion Tax that will deliver 1000 extra nurses to Scotland, Ed's Living Wage plan that'll give a pay rise to hundreds of thousands of Scots and Ed's energy price freeze.
"The problem for Ruth is that Scots voters want these policies and they want to send David Cameron's Tories packing."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article