Sturgeon Denies Handing Cameron Keys To No 10

Nicola Sturgeon has denied handing the keys to 10 Downing Street to David Cameron with her commanding performance during the seven-way leaders' debate.

The Scottish First Minister said if the election delivered a landslide for the SNP and Labour made a deal with the nationalists then together they could actually lock the Tories out of number 10.

Ms Sturgeon is widely considered the winner of the high-stakes showdown on Thursday night, although snap polls gave no clear victor , particularly in Scotland where she is being praised for delivering a "Sturgeon surge".

But Ed Miliband has also enjoyed a popularity boost following on from the TV election debate and interviews , a Survation poll for the Daily Mirror found.

But it shows the seven-way leaders' showdown appears to have had little impact on voting intentions so far.

:: For full coverage of General Election 2015 click here

:: For the General Election live blog click here

Among Ms Sturgeon's champions on Friday morning was Tory Chief Whip Michael Gove who said she had given an "impressive" performance.

Labour accused the Conservatives of "bigging up" Ms Sturgeon in an attempt to return Mr Cameron to power.

The SNP is forecast to deliver a significant blow to Labour in Scotland, all but wiping out the number of the party's MPs.

This could be crucial at a time when neither Labour nor the Conservatives are expected to win a majority on 7 May.

However, Ms Sturgeon said the SNP was not planning on delivering a victory to Mr Cameron and added: "If Labour and the SNP combined to have more seats than the Tories we can lock the Tories out of government.

"But crucially if SNP is a big force in Westminster we can make sure a Labour government does not sell out on its values like the last Labour government did."

Speaking in Manchester, where he was meeting people who had benefited from the Government's Help To Buy scheme, Mr Cameron issued a warning about a coalition including the small parties.

He said: "My impression of the debate is very much that there is one person, one leader, one party that is offering the competence of a long-term plan that is working and then there is a kind of coalition of chaos out there that wants more debt, spending and taxes."

His comments echoed those made by Mr Gove earlier in the day. He said: "If the country chooses to, it could vote for a patchwork coalition ... I prefer to say a lethal cocktail of different parties which all have different objectives - there would be an automatic instability."

Speaking shortly after the Labour campaign bus arrived in Blackpool, Mr Miliband said his position on ruling out a formal coalition with the SNP had not changed as a result of Ms Sturgeon's success in the debate.

Labour's Caroline Flint said: "There is not going to be a coalition with the SNP and there are not going to be any SNP ministers, I can assure you that and Alex Salmond certainly won't be Deputy Prime Minister.

"I think there is something pretty shallow about the processing discussions about coalitions and deals. You know we hear George Osborne and Michael Gove bigging up the SNP because they know that every vote for the SNP is more likely to secure David Cameron the keys to number 10 for another five years."

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said the debate had made it increasingly clear that another coalition would be the outcome of the vote in May.

He said: "The fact that there were seven there just shows that politics is becoming more fragmented. The only people who don't realise that are Ed Miliband and David Cameron - they think it's still a game of pass-the-parcel between the two old parties."