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Miliband Attacks SNP's '£7.6bn Black Hole'

Ed Miliband has visited Scotland for the first time in the election campaign - claiming SNP policy would cause a £7.6bn black hole that would need to be funded by cuts or tax rises.

Sharing a platform with Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy and Ed Balls he attacked SNP plans for full fiscal autonomy for Scotland.

He said SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon's announcement on Wednesday that nationalist MPs at Westminster could vote for autonomy for Scotland as early as next year was "one of the most significant" events of the campaign.

Ms Sturgeon dismissed Mr Miliband's attack as "desperate" and said the only cuts facing Scottish voters are "the ones that the Tories are proposing and Labour are backing".

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Labour are under massive pressure north of the border thanks to soaring support for the SNP, which could cost them dozens of seats and even deprive them of a majority.

Almost half (46%) of voters would back the SNP at the General Election, according to Sky's latest poll of Scottish polls.

The projection, compiled by Sky's election analyst Michael Thrasher, would give the SNP 49 seats in the House of Commons, compared with 290 for Labour, 265 for Conservatives, 20 for Lib Dems, two for UKIP, and 24 for others.

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Scottish nationalists hope to wrestle full control over taxation and spending for Scotland if they win kingmaker position in the May 7 election.

But Mr Miliband said this would mean a "£7.6bn black hole" in Scotland's finances that "would need to be filled with more taxes on working people or more borrowing".

"This strikes to the very heart of what I believe in. I will never sell Scotland short by signing up to the SNP's plans," he said.

He challenged the SNP to say where cuts would be made to service the funding gap.

"Which services will be cut? Which taxes will be raised? And what cuts will it mean for pensioners in Scotland when they are taken out of the UK pensions system?" he said.

"The SNP claim in this campaign to be proposing no reductions in spending, but in fact they are planning dramatic reductions in spending. They must now come clean."

Mr Miliband also attacked the Conservatives, saying their campaign is descending into "desperation and panic" after David Cameron unveiled plans to freeze commuter rail fares and offer workers three paid days off for volunteering .

He accused the Tories of deploying personal abuse and "unfunded and unbelievable promises" in their efforts to keep Mr Cameron in power.

Mr Murphy has previously been careful to put distance between himself and Labour's Westminster leadership, saying: "I'm my own man".

It was the first time the two men have shared a platform since the start of the campaign.

Mr Murphy began the speeches, saying his party are "determined to end this Tory austerity".

He said the SNP's plans for fiscal autonomy had not been thought through and were a "slogan in search of a policy".

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Earlier, Ms Sturgeon denied there are billions of pounds of cuts on the horizon under her autonomy plan.

"This is desperation on the part of the Labour Party," she said while campaigning on the streets of Stirling.

"Instead of putting forward a positive case of their own, they are resorting to the same fears and smears that they resorted to during the referendum.

"The truth is the only cuts on the horizon for Scotland are the ones that the Tories are proposing and Labour are backing."

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, who was accused of dragging politics into the gutter by saying Mr Miliband had "stabbed his own brother in the back" to lead Labour, said the SNP "are already pulling Labour's strings".

"Nicola Sturgeon makes a statement, and the Labour leader rushes to Edinburgh to respond," he said.

"If it's like this now, imagine what it would be like with the SNP propping up Ed Miliband in Downing Street. Borrowing, taxes, our defence policy - all of it would have to be signed off by the SNP."

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