Labour Party hopes of clear vote win clouded by Scotland problem - poll

LONDON (Reuters) - The opposition Labour Party's hopes of winning a May 7 national election in Britain outright remain clouded by a collapse in support in Scotland, a poll showed on Monday, boosting nationalists there who hope to hold the balance of power. The ICM poll for the Guardian newspaper showed Labour faces losing 29 of its 41 Scottish seats. Support for the Scottish National Party (SNP) was 43 percent, unchanged from the last ICM poll in December, when Labour elected a new leader for its Scottish wing. Labour was up one point on 27 percent. If Labour fails to claw back lost support from the SNP, it will be even harder for it to win an overall majority in what is shaping up to be an unusually close UK-wide election, with polls showing no one party is on course for an outright win. ICM said the result would see the SNP, which has enjoyed a surge in support since a failed independence referendum in September last year, win 43 of Scotland's 59 seats in the British parliament. Labour would be left with just 12. On Sunday, former SNP leader Alex Salmond said his party could support a minority Labour government in return for an end to public spending cuts. The SNP hopes to convert its popularity into influence after the election. Labour leader Ed Miliband, who has ruled out a formal coalition with the SNP but not a looser issue-by-issue agreement, said on Monday the SNP would "not in a million years" be involved in writing a future Labour budget. (Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Andrew Osborn)