Note from Mandelson’s firm warns that SNP will drag Labour to the left

Peter Mandelson and Ed Miliband appeared to have been undergoing a certain rapprochement during this campaign. Mandelson declared recently that Miliband has ‘way exceeded my expectations‘. But a briefing note from Global Counsel, of which Mandelson is chairman, is bound to be seized on by the Tories.

The note is entitled ‘Why the SNP will win whatever happens on May 7th’ and goes on to discuss what might happen if the Nationalists end up holding the balance of power in a hung parliament. It warns that ‘English dissatisfaction is likely to grow over time with the consequences of Labour government being sustained in power by the SNP’. It also predicts that the SNP will ‘pull the Labour party to the left, away from the centre ground of English politics. This will include pushing Labour towards higher public spending.’

Now, this is just the view of the chief economist of Global Counsel. But it does show that Tory warnings about the influence that the SNP would exert on a minority Labour government aren’t being plucked out of thin air.