text: Nicola Sturgeon has warned David Cameron she will trigger a second Scottish independence referendum if he tries to take Britain to the EU exit door. The steely First Minister, in her first interview with the Daily Mail on the day of her election manifesto launch, said for the first time that she would regard an 'out' vote in the Tories' proposed poll on EU membership as justification to reopen the question of breaking up the UK. She also revealed that she intends to be in London on May 8 - the day after the general election - to personally lead the SNP's negotiating team in the event of another hung Parliament. Scroll down for video . The Scottish First Minister - unveiling the SNP manifesto today - revealed she would regard an 'out' vote in the Tories' proposed poll on EU membership as justification to reopen the question of breaking up the UK . Miss Sturgeon said she - not her predecessor Alex Salmond - would take charge of any talks, even though she is not running for a Westminster seat and he is. 'If there are negotiations to be had I'll be there,' she said. In a wide-ranging interview, the First Minister, riding high on polls suggesting the SNP is on the brink of a landslide unprecedented in modern British politics: . Miss Sturgeon also revealed that she - not her predecessor Alex Salmond - would take charge of any talks, even though she is not running for a Westminster seat and he is . The Scottish First Minister addressed supporters at an SNP rally at a indoor mountain climbing centre in Edinburgh . Miss Sturgeon's manifesto included proposals to seek to thwart the Tories' planned in/out EU referendum by 2017, the first time voters would have had a say on our place in Europe for 40 years. She said SNP MPs would seek to amend an EU referendum Bill to insist on a 'double majority' - meaning that unless England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each vote to leave the EU, the UK would remain a member state. The First Minister, who has previously said merely that 'something substantial' would have to change before the SNP held a second independence referendum, said a Tory government seeking to take Scotland out of the EU against its will would be a trigger. The Scottish Nationalists lost last year's independence referendum by 55 per cent to 45 per cent, having previously suggested it was a 'once in a generation' event. David Cameron speaks to supporters during a Conservative Party rally  in Sandymoor, Cheshire . Miss Sturgeon told the Mail that an EU exit would be 'something substantive... change in circumstances' that would mean a second Scottish independence referendum was necessary. 'It's if there was a vote that ended up taking Scotland out against our will. That's the only concrete example,' she said. 'I'm quite clear: a vote for the SNP at this election, I'm not taking that as a mandate for another referendum. So it would have to be something like the EU situation. 'It's if there was an out vote across the UK and Scotland wants to stay in. I suspect if we were in those circumstances there would be a clamour of people across Scotland to look again at the independence question, whether I'm proposing it or not. 'But what I'm talking about with a change of circumstances, it's not me trying to pluck out the conditions out of thin air. I do mean it - there will have to be a change in circumstances and we haven't even started the process of the 2016 manifesto [for Scottish Parliament elections] yet. 'If I put a commitment to a referendum in any future SNP manifesto, people have to vote for that manifesto so I can't do that lightly. I have to be sure that there is a change of circumstances that has led to people by majority opinion wanting another referendum.' Miss Sturgeon, who received a rock star welcome from party faithful as she launched her blueprint for power near Edinburgh yesterday, was scathing about Labour's economic plans. 'Labour like to talk the langauge of anti austerity but the substance of the proposals is not anti austerity,' she said. 'This is not all about conversations between me and Ed Miliband. I know for a fact there are plenty of folk in the Labour ranks that agree with me on austerity more than they agree with Ed Miliband. 'There will be support. One of Ed Miliband's shadow ministers has said he would never vote for the renwal of Trident. Yes, people focus on talks between the leaders but what I'm saying is that we'll try to forge alliances across the Commons. The Prime Minister today warned that Miss Sturgeon would hold the UK to 'ransom' if the SNP holds the balance of power in May . The SNP have vowed never to strike a deal to keep David Cameron in Number 10 - whatever the result of the election . 'We will prevail on some things, we won't prevail on others. We would like to build those alliances with people of like mind across different parties.' The First Minister said she had been 'surprised' by messages of support from people in England and Wales who said they wished they could vote SNP. 'After the first leaders' debate it pleasantly surprised me. As a proportion of everyone in England it was a tiny proportion but it was a lot - I still get a lot of emails saying "we wish we could vote SNP". There are people in England saying "I wish Labour was saying these things. I wish we had a progressive alternative." 'That's why I do think David Cameron is making a mistake trying to base so much of his campaign on the assumption that people are afraid of the SNP. People are very frustrated. This is borne out in the polls. There is not a clear enough big enough decision and divide between the two main parties.' Ed Miliband insisted he would not be held to ransom by the SNP . Asked about voters' fears in the rest of the UK at the prospect of a separatist party wielding power, which led to the Mail dubbing her 'The Most Dangerous Woman in Britain', she joked: 'I thought it was possibly one of the nicest things the Daily Mail had ever said about me.' Brandishing a picture in her manifesto of her hugging a small child on the campaign trail, she asked: 'Do I look like one of the most dangerous women in Britain? Come on! I don't think that's how people in England see the SNP. 'That's not to say they agree with us on independence - many do, but many don't - but I don't think many people in England see the SNP as this big bogeyman threat. 'If there are some people that do, I take my responsibility seriously to persuade them that they are wrong and I do accept that I have a big responsibility in how I conduct the campaign and how I speak to people both in and outside Scotland to persuade people that there's not anything to be scared of from having the SNP in big numbers both inside and outside Scotland.' She insisted that she - not Mr Salmond or the SNP's Westminster leader Angus Robertson - would lead hung Parliament negotiations if, as polls predict, the party takes as many as 50 seats and holds the balance of power at Westminster. 'I'll be there,' she said. 'I'm the leader of the SNP, I'll be in charge of any decisions and negoaitions and anything that happens after May 7.' Miss Sturgeon denied that a hung parliament, led by a minority Labour government propped up vote-by-vote by the SNP, would be a recipe for chaos which would further undermine voters' trust in Parliament. 'My experience of being in a minority government - and it's a very direct experience of being deputy leader in a minority government for four years... it can, contrary to what you are saying about reducing trust in politics, can have the opposite effect because the public see politicians having to win arguments rather than votes by sheer force of numbers. The experience of minority government in Scotland was stable - clearly, because it lasted for four years. 'So based on that experience I have a different view of what a minority government situation and I don't think it has to be unstable or ineffective. On the contrary.' Miss Sturgeon said the coalition's fixed term parliaments legislation would strengthen the SNP's hand. It means general elections are held on a fixed timetable every five years, and makes it much harder for an election to happen at other times. Two-thirds of MPs now have to back an earlier election, and governments can lose votes on Budgets, Queen's Speeches and other key legislation without it being seen as a vote of no confidence and triggering an election. 'The Fixed Term Parliaments Act does make it possible to change a government's position without threatening the existence of that government... including a budget, though I must say I'm not going into this trying to block a budget. That's not the mindset we are taking into this. 'But the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, in a House of Commons context, has made the prospect of a minority government a much more viable one.' Miss Sturgeon said she had been surprised to be told that the Prime Minister was not prepared to sit alongside her at the end of their separate interviews on Sunday's Andrew Marr Show, as guests traditionally do. 'I would have been quite happy to sit next to him,' she said.
target: SNP leader said the UK could not pull out of EU without Scotland's say so .
  Ms Sturgeon said an 'out' vote would justify a new independence poll .
  David Cameron has pledged to hold an in-out EU referendum by 2017 .
  Laughed off her title as "The Most Dangerous Woman in Britain" in a recent Daily Mail front page, asking: 'Do I look dangerous?'
  Said many Labour voters in England and Wales - and significant numbers of its MPs - preferred her vision to that of Ed Miliband .
  Claimed David Cameron refused to sit next to her on Andrew Marr's sofa when they both appeared on his BBC TV show at the weekend .
  Said new rules on fixed term parliaments meant the SNP MPs could seek to block key pieces of legislation, including Budgets, without bringing down a minority government .
  Insisted governments dependent on smaller parties for support would increase trust in politics because leaders would have to 'win the argument' not rely on MPs as lobby fodder .