Labour’s collapse in Scotland could cost Ed Miliband any chance of forming a majority government after May 7, former home secretary David Blunkett has warned.
The Labour former cabinet veteran said he had never encountered a situation where a party could be denied a majority because of results in just one part of the the United Kingdom.
He said the SNP “tsunami” engulfing Scotland could have “dangerous” consequences for the future of the Union.
“I have never seen anything quite like what we have at the moment,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One.
“Labour could win literally scores of seats in England and Wales and see themselves unable to offer a majority Labour government because of what has happened in just one part of the United Kingdom.
“Once people stop listening, once their minds have switched off to even rational argument, then it is extremely difficult to win that back. People are not even prepared to take leaflets or to engage in discussion.
“It is as though a great part of the Scottish nation have switched off and that is so dangerous for the Union and the future of Britain as a whole.”
He said that if the election did result in the formation of a minority Labour government, Mr Miliband would have to find a way to reach out to voters who had backed the nationalists as well as the Tories and the Liberal Democrats.
“I think it is going to have to be what you might describe as more-than-grown-up politics – it is going to have to be about re-shaping the way in which Westminster operates,” he said.
“An incoming Labour government led by Ed Miliband will have to reach out across political divides to people who have voted Conservative and Lib Dem as well as to those who have voted SNP to be able to say that we have to do what is right for the nation.”