ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now Ed Miliband has plenty of critics but this week he found a few from his own side, former Health Secretary for instance Alan Milburn attacked his policy on the NHS and Gordon Brown’s former spin doctor, Damian McBride said today he should show some more backbone.  Well every one of those attacks makes an election victory look a little less certain but could my next guest be the man who does help Mr Miliband in to Number Ten?  Alex Salmond is the former Scottish First Minister of course and he is hoping to be elected as a Westminster MP in May and he joins me now from Strichan in Aberdeenshire and a very good morning to you Mr Salmond.  So Mr Salmond, are you counting on there being a hung parliament, how certain do you think that is?

ALEX SALMOND: Well nothing’s certain in life or politics, Dermot, but a balanced parliament looks pretty likely at the present moment, that looks like the most likely outcome.  I’m hardly surprised because who’d want to give either David Cameron or Ed Miliband a majority?  I don't think either of them is worth that so a balanced parliament looks like the favourite at the present moment but nothing is certain.

DM: No, indeed, so how would an enlarged SNP representation in Westminster with you amongst them, how would you exploit those opportunities?

ALEX SALMOND: Well our job would be to progress Scottish interests and that in particular means to enforce the delivery of the vow, the promise that was made to Scotland of home rule, near federalism, devo to the max in these last desperate days of the referendum campaign where the three Westminster leaders were in a state of panic.  These promises will have to be redeemed but there’s also an area where the SNP in conjunction with allies and Plaid Cymru in Wales and the Green party in England would want to see more progressive politics introduced across these islands, for example instead of another bout of austerity from Labour or Conservative, the cancellation of the renewal of the Trident Missile system and diverting that funding – 30 billion over the next ten years – into health and education, into something useful and productive and I think that will have a lot of support in England as well as in Scotland.

DM: Just let me divert for a minute, digress for a minute, Mr Salmond, because of what you said there about the anti-austerity feeling, did you look over at Greece and see the Syriza victory there as saying there is another way, there is an appetite amongst electorates in Europe for those parties that say no to austerity?  Would you push for instance Labour more in that direction if you did get involved with them in forming a government?

ALEX SALMOND: Well Scotland and England aren’t Greece but certainly it’s true that a rising tide of questioning of austerity economics, that will take different ways in different countries but I think in both Scotland, England, Wales, across these islands there are many people who say there has to be a better way than another £30,000 million of austerity cuts as laid out by George Osborne and agreed to by Ed Balls, there has to be a better way of stimulating the economy and ensuring fairness across society.

DM: So how close would you get to Labour?  Would you become Deputy Prime Minister if it were offered?

ALEX SALMOND: Well Nicola Sturgeon has laid this out very clearly.  What we’ve ruled out is any deal with the Conservative party, formal or informal and the reason for that of course is that they can’t be trusted.  I mean it’s David Cameron waltzing out of Downing Street the day after the referendum and trying to rewrite the rule book so they can’t be trusted.  I think and Nicola said that a formal coalition is unlikely, we’re not ruling it out but it would be unlikely and I think my experience of minority governments –  which is pretty substantial incidentally in the Scottish parliament, I led one for four years – would tell you that the best way to effect change is to negotiate on a vote by vote basis and the things we are negotiating is the delivery of the vow to Scotland, the cancellation of the renewal of the Trident system and support for progressive politics, for progressive causes, things like the living wage, across these islands.

DM: Would another referendum also be part of those negotiations?

ALEX SALMOND: No, I think Dermot we’ve established what the gold standard is for holding a Scottish referendum.  What has to happen is that the people of Scotland have to vote for parties putting that forward in the Scottish parliament at a Scottish parliament election and a manifesto commitment delivered by a majority of MSPs, that’s the route by which Scotland can have another referendum and the timing of that of course is very much a matter for my successor, Nicola Sturgeon.

DM: But that Scottish election is a year after the General Election, it could happen within the demand for another referendum, depending on how the SNP, the demand could happen within the next parliament.

ALEX SALMOND: Well that’s a matter for Nicola Sturgeon, you invite her on to your programme next week and ask her that question, but I mean one thing you can be absolutely certain of, there can only be another referendum at any time in Scotland if the people of Scotland vote for it in a Scottish election so it’s the people of Scotland actually, not any politician, who’ll decide when and if there’s another independence referendum.

DM: But there is a vote coming up in which the people of Scotland will vote, a General Election.  The SNP if you look at the polls now, and you hope that that is so, the SNP would in Scottish terms on current polling win that election in Scotland.  

ALEX SALMOND: Yes, we are taking nothing for granted, we’re working really hard even in conditions like this, Dermot.  I’ll be out canvassing later on this afternoon hopefully here in the north-east of Scotland so we’re working really hard and taking nothing for granted but we’ve set out what we’ve attempted to do, to further Scottish interests in this election and that is to enforce the vow, the promises that were made to Scotland, to make sure they’re delivered and to put forward progressive politics across these islands.  That’s proving very attractive to many, many people in Scotland and I think actually it would prove attractive to a lot of people south of the border as well.

DM: Okay, would Trident be a deal breaker if in those negotiations about co-operation, coalition perhaps, if Trident were not to be removed from Scottish soil and waters, would that be a deal breaker?

ALEX SALMOND: No, can I just correct you, the decision that will be made in the next Westminster parliament, Dermot, is whether, it’s the gateway decision for the renewal of Trident and how it’s worth to spend £100 billion over the next generation or about £30 billion over the next ten years in renewing, replacing the Trident Missile system, that’s the vote that’s coming up in the next House of Commons and we say we should not do that particularly at a time when the Conservative party, the Labour party are suggesting another £30,000 million of austerity cuts in health and education and things that really matter.  Now that’s the vital vote and that’s a huge priority for the SNP and indeed for other parties and for other MPs to stop that happening.  You know, at a time of austerity you don’t waste £30 billion on a new generation of nuclear missiles.

DM: So if you were working with Mr Miliband, I know you’d keep it business-like but you did deride him, didn’t you, in the course of the Scottish independence referendum campaign?  You referred to him, didn’t you, as one of the three amigos, part of Team Westminster and he hit back and said that the SNP are running the same race to the bottom that the Tories have embarked upon.  It got pretty bitter.

ALEX SALMOND: Well I mean there were three amigos weren’t there?  There was David Cameron, Ed Miliband campaigning side by side, shoulder to shoulder, Tory and Labour together and Nick Clegg as well, these were the three amigos and it is also true of course that Ed Miliband has achieved what no Labour leader has ever achieved in the history of Scottish politics, that’s he’s even more unpopular than David Cameron.  That is a remarkable achievement but listen, we judge people on the policies they put forward and what we’re trying to do is to get things that benefit the Scottish people and put forward the case for progressive politics across these islands so it’s on the policies that these things will be judged and as Sky Television says, it’s on the margins that this election will be won.

DM: Okay and what did you make of that, on the other side of the coin, that Conservative poster that mocked up a picture of you and Ed Miliband outside Number Ten?   It’s thought that they Photo Shopped your head perhaps onto Ed Balls body but the point being there that your tactics would be to infuriate the English so much that they would want independence for Scotland as well.

ALEX SALMOND: Yes, I was pretty annoyed about the Photo Shopping on Ed Balls body, I mean that was certainly below the belt.  In fact I think even the Daily Mail described that poster as a Tory own goal because just was David Cameron’s only claim to fame is that he is marginally less unpopular in Scotland than Ed Miliband, then perhaps I’m less unpopular in England than David Cameron.

DM: And what about the other issue there about the issue of Scotland getting a lot and England not getting very much indeed and Jim Murphy made that point, didn’t he, about a Mansion Tax, which you support presumably, that the Mansion Tax will be raised mainly in the south-east, raised mainly in London, that could pay for a lot more Scottish nurses.

ALEX SALMOND: Well you are going to have to dig me out here I think, Dermot, by the time this interview is over but I thought that Jim Murphy was particularly foolish in the way he expressed that incidentally.  You know, Jim Murphy is trying desperately to put a tartan scarf on because we’ve known him all this time in politics as a Blairite cheerleader for the Iraq war and now he is trying to pretend he’s something else.  It’s not cutting much ice in Scotland incidentally and I suspect he is not courting any popularity in England either.

DM: Ice is the right word to use I guess judging by the conditions there, Mr Salmond, we will let you go.  We hope you don’t need to be dug out but every time I talk to you there seems to be lovely picturesque weather.

ALEX SALMOND: I’m going back to watch the tennis, Dermot, where I understand it is somewhat warmer in Australia.

DM: Yes and let’s hope Andy Murray turns it round, we hear he lost the first set. I’ll let you get back inside, Alex Salmond thank you very much indeed.

ALEX SALMOND: Just like the referendum, Dermot.  

DM: Okay, thank you very much, Mr Salmond there in the snow and the sleet there in Strichan.