ED MILIBAND has encouraged Scotland to 'partner up' with London, North England and Wales in voting for his party in an attempt to kick out the Tories.

Making his first campaign foray north of the border, the Labour leader addressed the issue of full fiscal autonomy, and vowed that he wouldn't sell the country short by signing up to SNP plans.

He said: "For years we heard the SNP argue that it was people in England that voted to give Scotland a Tory Government.

"Now Labour is ahead in Wales, in all the cities of the North of England, the polls suggest we are far ahead in London.

"Scotland can partner up with London, Liverpool and Cardiff in voting Labour and kicking out the Tories. "The Tories can't stop that in Scotland and the only people who can save the Tories in Scotland are the SNP.

"It would be a sad irony if the only people that stood in the way of getting rid of a Tory Government were SNP MPs in Scotland.

"If that was in any doubt before it is now crystal clear after yesterday as both Nicola Sturgeon and Stewart Hosie ruled out voting for a Labour Government over the issue of trident.

"SNP MPs will not add to some imagined progressive coalition, each SNP parliamentarian will simply remove one from Labours total."

With 27 days to go until the General Election, a poll today put support for Labour as being 24 points behind Nicola Sturgeon's SNP - a result which could see Mr Miliband's party almost wiped out north of the border.

In a bid to boost support in the country where Labour won 41 seats in the 2010 election, Mr Milliband and his shadow chancellor Ed Balls teamed up with Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy to launch their strongest attack yet on the SNP.

But Ms Sturgeon dismissed them as "desperate", with the Scottish First Minister insisting that the only cuts people are facing are "the ones that the Tories are proposing and Labour are backing".

In a TV election debate earlier this week, the SNP leader had said her MPs at Westminster could vote for full fiscal autonomy for Scotland as early as next year

Mr Miliband has now challenged Nicola Sturgeon to prove how they will fill a gap of £7.6 billion.

He said: "I believe this is one of the most significant events of the campaign so far in Scotland,"

"Full fiscal autonomy will mean a £7.6 billion hole in Scotland's finances.

"Today I challenge Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP to say how they will fill this £7.6 billion gap.

"Which services will be cut? Which taxes will be raised? And what cuts will it mean for pensioners in Scotland when they are taken out of the UK pensions system?

"The SNP claim in this campaign to be proposing no reductions in spending but in fact they are planning dramatic reductions in spending. They must now come clean."

Mr Miliband pledged: "I will never sell Scotland short by signing up to the SNP's plans.

"I will never sell Britain short by abandoning the pooling and sharing of resources. Because this is a pooling and sharing of resources which benefits all parts of our country, because we look after each other and we know we can only tackle the problems our country faces across the whole of the United Kingdom."

He dismissed a series of opinion polls which have put Labour well behind the SNP, saying: "I've got an old-fashioned view, which is that nobody has voted in this election yet and people are still making up their minds.

He also claimed the Conservative campaign is turning into "desperation and panic" after David Cameron unveiled plans to freeze commuter rail fares in real terms and offer workers three paid days off for volunteering.