text: Nicola Sturgeon yesterday vowed to prop up Ed Miliband in Downing Street – even if he loses the election. In her most extraordinary offer yet the nationalist leader called on the Labour leader to help her ‘lock’ David Cameron out of Downing Street. And crucially, she said the offer stood ‘regardless of who is the biggest party’ in the House of Commons. Scroll down for video . Nicola Sturgeon (pictured) said she would try to 'lock David Cameron out of Downing Street' regardless of whether the Tories finished as the largest party next month . Her comments raise the prospect of Mr Miliband ending up in Number 10 as a result of nationalist support despite having fewer seats in the House of Commons than the Tories. Miss Sturgeon’s latest offer came amid continued fallout from claims she told a French diplomat she wanted David Cameron to remain as Prime Minister. The report of the conversation, on February 26, between Miss Sturgeon and Sylvie Bermann, the French Ambassador, was contained within a Scotland Office memo leaked to the Daily Telegraph. The claim was denied both by the French embassy and Miss Sturgeon. Miss Sturgeon also denied a separate claim in the memo that Mr Miliband is ‘not Prime Minister material’. It undermines the SNP leader’s claim that she wants to build a progressive alliance with Labour to keep the Conservatives out of office. The SNP’s opponents say it would favour another Tory-led government, against which it could campaign in an attempt to make an ‘out’ vote more likely in another referendum. In an article for the Observer addressed to Mr Miliband she wrote: ‘If together our parties have the parliamentary numbers required after 7 May, and regardless of which is the biggest party, will he and Labour join with us in locking David Cameron out of Downing Street?’ Ed Miliband has ruled out going into Coalition with SNP but has not rejected the prospect of working with them . Chancellor George Osborne said the prospect of the SNP propping up the Labour Party in power was an 'alliance between a party that wants to bankrupt the country and a party that wants to break up the country' Her comments heaped pressure on Labour to rule out any deal with the nationalists. Labour has ruled out a formal coalition with the SNP but has refused to say if it would enter a looser agreement on policy areas to stay in power. Tory chief whip Michael Gove said: ‘My concern is that if the SNP win the number of seats they are projected to, they could hold the balance of power and hold Labour leader Ed Miliband to ransom.’ Miss Sturgeon is calling for a £180billion debt-fuelled public spending spree and an end to the Trident nuclear deterrent. Former cabinet minister Peter Hain told Radio 4’s The World This Weekend he said: ‘It is a curious plea being made by Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP: vote anything except Labour to get a Labour government. That makes no sense at all.’ A Panelbase poll released yesterday put the SNP, on 45 per cent, with Labour on 29 per cent. If repeated across Scotland, the poll findings suggest the SNP would win 29 of the 41 seats won by Labour in 2010. A BBC reporter said he suffered an onslaught of ‘vicious abuse’ from Scottish Nationalists simply for asking Nicola Sturgeon about the claims that she would prefer David Cameron to remain as Prime Minister. Scotland correspondent James Cook was called ‘scum of the earth’ and ‘lying scum’ by SNP supporters on Twitter. One wrote that Mr Cook was ‘in the gutter’ and trying to ‘hide his SNP hatred’, while another accused him of being a ‘typical BBC/Westminster mouthpiece’. On Saturday Mr Cook wrote on the site: ‘What an extraordinary level of vicious abuse I have received today for simply reporting the news. Is this the country we want folks? Is it?’ He added: ‘Of course there are some SNP strategists – I know, I’ve spoken to them – who say in private a Tory victory would hasten independence. ‘Of course I should ask tough questions of politicians. This is a democracy. This is my role in it. And finally if, despite my 23 years of reporting things straight, you think I simply make up conversations then do feel free to unfollow me.’ Miss Sturgeon later praised Mr Cook in an apparent attempt to calm the situation. She tweeted: ‘James Cook is one of the best journalists in Scotland. Tough but scrupulously fair and a consummate professional.’
target: SNP chief says she would work with Labour regardless of election result .
  She challenged the Labour leader to agree pact to 'lock Cameron out'
  Comes after claim she told French diplomat she wanted Cameron as PM .
  Official Whitehall probe was ordered  after she dismissed memo as untrue .