Iain Gray launches personal attack and warns disaffected Liberal Democrats to vote against the break-up of the UK
The Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray has warned disaffected Liberal Democrats that Alex Salmond is too "downright dangerous" to deserve their support, and is not a "safe option".
Gray has been stung by a series of opinion polls suggesting that the Scottish National party has taken a commanding lead in the race to win the Holyrood election in 10 days, with Salmond set to win a second term as first minister.
In a speech intended to reinvigorate Labour's faltering campaign, Gray admitted that the SNP had "a real chance" of forming the next Scottish government but warned voters they now "stand on the edge" of bringing in a government intent on breaking up the UK.
In a message targeting wavering Lib Dem voters, Gray added: "The message on separation is simple: if you don't want it, don't vote for it, because Alex Salmond says a second term will give him the moral authority to pursue it."
Gray made a series of personal attacks on Salmond, in a dramatic switch in tactics, claiming the first minister "only cares about his own job, he doesn't care about yours ... he will say anything to anyone to make his vision of independence come true".
After watching their apparent 10-point advantage in the polls evaporate over the past three weeks, stunned Labour officials are openly contemplating defeat on 5 May and some backbench MPs are now directly attacking the handling of the Scottish campaign.
Party officials admit that a much larger number of Lib Dem voters and some Tory voters appear to be switching to the SNP in the suburbs and rural areas outside Labour's core areas in central and west Scotland.
Labour's strategy of focusing their energies on winning 20 target seats has solidified support in those seats but has made the error of ignoring other constituencies and non-core voters.
Gray tried to rally Labour activists and campaigners by urging them to attack Salmond's desire for independence with floating voters and to attack the SNP leader himself.
He said Salmond's pledge to see 100% of Scotland's electricity generated by renewables by 2020 was "rhetorical fantasy" and his pledge to deliver a five-year council tax freeze was "not credible". His estimated efficiency savings, Gray said, were "vague and mysterious".
Labour now estimates that the SNP could win up to 54 seats, taking constituencies in the Highlands, north-east Scotland and the Borders, in part because some Lib Dem voters want to keep Labour out of power, while Tories may vote tactically for the same reason.
Driven by a significant backlash over Nick Clegg's coalition with David Cameron, the polls show the Lib Dem vote has now halved to about 8% while the Tory vote has also fallen to 12%.
"The collapse in Lib Dem support introduces an element of chaos into the election ? we can't pretend that isn't the case," said one party official.
Labour sources still insist the polls have exaggerated the scale of the SNP's lead, and believe it will take seats from the SNP and Lib Dems.
One senior official said he still believed Labour would win but by a very narrow margin.
The polls suggest up to a third of voters are undecided: polling headlines putting the SNP 10 points ahead were based on the opinions of 680 voters.
However, the same polls still showed that fewer than a third of voters support independence, suggesting many voters will disbelieve Gray's warnings.
They also show Salmond remains the most popular leader and most popular choice for first minister.
Gray told reporters after his speech that their canvassing showed "a huge number of don't knows and undecideds. So there's still a lot to play for over the next 10 days".
He added: "What's happened is that there are very large numbers of Lib Dem and, to a degree, Conservative voters apparently in this poll who look as if they're either considering shifting to other parties or don't know who they're voting for."
They add that some pre-general election polls showed the Clegg and the Lib Dems were beating Labour into third place.
Before the 2007 election, the SNP were also 10 points ahead, but only won by one seat over Labour.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/apr/25/alex-salmond-scotland-election
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