Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has claimed opinion polls were there to be confounded and backing his party was the only way to end “crushing austerity”.
He spoke out after a YouGov survey suggested 46% of voters will vote SNP compared to 29% who would support Labour.
Speaking at the launch of Labour’s general election campaign in Neilston, East Renfrewshire yesterday, Mr Murphy warned that Labour would not win the general election on May 7 without the backing of voters in Scotland.
He promised that Labour would recruit 1,000 extra nurses funded by a mansion tax, secure more powers for Holyrood including the final say on benefits and guarantee a job and training for all young people.
He said that £1,600 would be given to 18-19-year-olds who don’t have an apprenticeship to go to college or university, to invest in themselves or start a business
The party, which wants a minimum wage of at least £8 per hour, claimed 40,000 young people would benefit from its Future Fund.
Mr Murphy said the Barnett funding formula would be retained, bursaries for the poorest students would be increased by £1,000, zero hours contacts would be abolished and university tuition fees would remain banned.
The MP said Labour would end the need for foodbanks with a £175million fund to tackle the causes of poverty.
Mr Murphy said: “The polls are there to be confounded.”
The politician told activists that “people across Britain need a Labour government” but claimed voting SNP would put the result at risk.
Mr Murphy said: “For years we heard the SNP argue that it was people in England who voted to give Scotland a Tory government.
“Now Labour is ahead in Wales, in all the cities of the north of England, and the polls suggest we are far ahead in London.
“It would be deeply ironic, would it not, if the only people in the UK that stood in the way of a Labour government were SNP MPs here in Scotland?
“We have to vote for the only party that is big enough, the only party that is strong enough, to defeat the Tories and end their crushing austerity.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called on Labour to work with the SNP in “locking David Cameron out of Downing Street” even if the party failed to return the largest number of MPs.