Nationalists join fray with attack on Labour

The Scottish and Welsh nationalists got their election campaigns off the ground yesterday by launching an attack on Labour.

In the last joint news conference by Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party before the election, the two parties claimed they were the only ones to provide a radical alternative to the Tories. Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, said: "Blair has effectively cloned new Labour on a Tory model. In terms of economic and tax policy you could not put a cigarette paper between these two parties. So if they did have a [televised head-to- head] debate I can only imagine it would be on the colour of the tie ... or the cut of the suit."