text: It is the image which the Tories hope will scare floating voters into their arms – the prospect of Nicola Sturgeon forcing Ed Miliband to implement her radical policies. Launching a new poster campaign showing Ms Sturgeon manipulating a puppet Labour leader, Conservative chairman Grant Shapps said: ‘The only way that Ed Miliband might crawl through the gates of No10 now is if he’s carried there by the SNP. ‘Nicola Sturgeon would pull the strings and demand weaker defences, more spending and unaffordable welfare handouts. It would be a disaster.’ Scroll down for video . New poster: It is the image which the Tories hope will scare floating voters into their arms – the prospect of Nicola Sturgeon forcing Ed Miliband to implement her radical policies . The campaign comes as Ms Sturgeon uses an article in today’s Scottish Mail on Sunday to claim that she can help ‘lead the UK’. The SNP leader reveals that her party’s manifesto, to be published tomorrow, will include pledges in policy areas which don’t even directly affect Scotland. It will be the first time that the SNP has ever set out policies designed for other parts of the UK – even though people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland cannot vote for them. Her comments are certain to rile many in England, who will be aghast at the prospect of a party for which they cannot vote trying to run their country. Ms Sturgeon also gives an ‘absolute guarantee’ that she will not use success in this year’s General Election as a reason to push for another poll on breaking up Britain. ‘We will be pursuing policies which can change things for the better for people right across the UK, such as in health, where we will oppose any attempts to further privatise England’s NHS, ensuring more public funding for healthcare north and south of the border,’ she writes. Campaign trail: The leader of the Scottish National Party is applauded by former leader and local candidate Alex Salmond during campaigning in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire yesterday . ‘I can also give an absolute guarantee that this Election is not about independence or about delivering another referendum, no matter how many SNP MPs may be returned to Westminster in May.’ But Alistair Darling, who led the campaign to save the Union last year, today warns voters not to believe her claims. In his first major contribution to this year’s Election campaign, the former Labour Chancellor says an influx of SNP MPs at Westminster would turn Scotland into ‘Neverendum land’. Also writing exclusively in today’s Scottish Mail on Sunday, he says: ‘Nicola Sturgeon will decide when to hold another referendum and it will be when she thinks she will win it ... [The SNP] need to spell out what exactly they intend. The vote was clear. What’s more, most Scots do not want to live in Neverendum land. ‘We are now told that the General Election is not about independence. Really? 'That’s what the SNP said in 2011 in the Scottish elections. It was all about health and education, they said. Not after the result it wasn’t.’ Revelation: It was also claimed this weekend that Ms Sturgeon has privately vowed to keep voting down an Ed Miliband Budget until he agrees to her party’s policy demands . It was also claimed this weekend that Ms Sturgeon has privately vowed to keep voting down an Ed Miliband Budget until he agrees to her party’s policy demands. With polling experts saying that Labour has only a 1 per cent chance of forming a majority Government in its own right, the SNP’s support is likely to be vital in passing any Budget drawn up by a Miliband administration. Until now, it had been assumed Ms Sturgeon’s party could not vote against a Budget without triggering a vote of no confidence and another General Election. But SNP sources told the BBC’s Newsnight that since the 2011 Fixed-term Parliaments Act, this is no longer the case.
target: Tories will be hoping to scare floating voters with puppet-master image .
  Comes as SNP leader Ms Sturgeon claims that she can help ‘lead the UK’
  Party manifesto to include pledges in policy areas which don’t even directly affect Scotland .