Election 2015: Galloway urges Labour-SNP talks
Ed Miliband risks "a huge betrayal" of the British people if he leaves out the SNP in any post-election negotiations, Respect's George Galloway has warned.
The ex-Labour MP claims he is "anti-SNP" but says it would be "foolish" to ignore legitimate parliamentarians "just because you don't like" them.
Mr Galloway, one of four Respect Party candidates, says he believes Mr Miliband will win the 7 May poll.
But Mr Miliband insists there will be no deals or coalition with the SNP.
Candidates standing in Bradford West:
UKIP Harry Boota
Respect George Galloway
Conservative George Grant
Liberal Democrat Alun Griffiths
Green Celia Hickson
English Democrats Therese Hirst
Independent James Kirkcaldy
Labour Naseem Shah
Mr Galloway, who labelled SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon as "Mrs Thatcher in a kilt", told BBC Two's Daily Politics that while he holds "no brief for the SNP... we can't have legitimate members of the British Parliament being treated as second class or a kind of untouchable...
"It would be a huge betrayal of the Labour movement and of the British working people and the millions who are going to vote for him [Miliband] to allow David Cameron into Downing Street to continue his wrecking campaign, just because you don't like the Scottish National Party. That would absolutely self destructive and foolish."
He said he believed Mr Miliband's ethos was closer to what he described as the "real Labour" values of his Respect Party than Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, although he claimed more could be done on issues of war, peace and austerity.
Mr Galloway was expelled from the Labour Party in October 2003 in the wake of his outspoken comments on the Iraq war.
He subsequently became the figurehead for Respect, which stands for Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community and Trade Unionism. a party that emerged out of the Stop the War coalition in 2004.
He is standing for re-election in the Bradford West constituency, but has said he will fight to become London mayor if he loses his parliamentary seat.
The best of BBC News' Election 2015 specials