Jim Murphy said he wanted to stop the Conservatives at the ballot box rather than by a “shoddy backroom deal” with the SNP.
The Scottish Labour leader stood firm in the face of Nicola Sturgeon’s warning to Ed Miliband during Thursday’s television election debate that voters would never forgive him if, in the event of a hung parliament, he refused to work with the SNP to “lock David Cameron out of Downing Street”.
As he launched the Scottish Labour manifesto, Mr Murphy said: “I want to beat David Cameron at the ballot box, not in some shoddy back room deal. There’s only one way of doing that.
“Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond and all the others can huff and puff as much as they want, only Labour is big enough and only Labour is strong enough to beat the Tories.”
Turning the first minister’s jibe back at her, he added: “Most Scots haven’t forgotten that they (the SNP) brought down a previous Labour government.
“And most Scots will never forgive them if they prevent this Labour government from being elected.”
The manifesto contains 160 commitments that Mr Murphy said were “fully costed” and would require no borrowing.
Among them were plans to recruit 300 more GPS and 1,000 extra nurses, part of a £1billion investment plan for the NHS, funding through a mansion tax on properties worth more than £2million, taxes on tobacco companies and hedge funds.
Breakfast clubs would be set up in 100 primary schools in the poorest areas “because no child should start school on an empty stomach”, Mr Murphy said.
He hailed the manifesto as a return to the politics of two of Scottish Labour’s best known and widely respected leaders.
“In our manifesto I’m proud to say the party of John Smith and Donald Dewar is back in business,” he told activists in Glasgow.
Mr Murphy admitted the election will be the closest in his life and every vote cast in Scotland will make a difference in deciding the outcome.
“We go into the final few weeks of this election campaign clear that the way to guarantee the end of the Tory government is to vote Labour rather than to gamble on the messy outcomes of a hung parliament,” he said.
“And we want people to vote Labour out of hope, not just out of anger at David Cameron and George Osborne. Cynicism is an easy way to win votes but it only makes real change harder.”