SNP's Alex Salmond urges voters to reject Labour and Tories at general election

Alex Salmond today urged voters to reject the "metropolitan political machines" of Labour and the Tories by electing nationalists to fight Scotland's corner at Westminster. The Scottish National party leader claimed Scotland needed "local champions" to challenge the cuts being proposed by the Conservatives and Labour, with this comments coming as all the main parties launched their Scottish general election campaigns from constituencies in Edinburgh. Salmond has been put on the defensive by recent opinion polls suggesting that his party – and its election slogan of "more Nats, less cuts" – has so far failed to attract voters in the runup to the election campaign. Labour and the Tories insist the SNP, which has seven Commons seats, is "irrelevant" at Westminster. Both parties claim voters will desert the party, and the Scottish Liberal Democrats, in the intense battle between David Cameron and Gordon Brown. Labour said Salmond's reference to Scottish independence – Salmond noted that today is the 690th anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, which asserted Scotland's independence from England – would backfire by proving that his party was ignoring real election issues. But the SNP leader, who is standing down as the Westminster MP for Banff and Buchan to focus on being the first minister of Scotland, insisted the SNP and its anti-cuts message was more relevant than ever. The party hopes to distribute 500,000 postcards to voters by this evening under the "more Nats, less cuts" slogan. "It's a central theme of the election," Salmond said. "We've had Alistair Darling [the chancellor] blurting out that the cuts he's planning will be 'deeper and tougher' than those under Margaret Thatcher. "In the last couple of days, we've George Osborne [the shadow chancellor] singularly failing to tell me the basis on which they plan deeper cuts in Scottish spending without the consent of the Scottish public and the Scottish parliament." Speaking in the target seat of Edinburgh East, Salmond said making the direct link between Westminster-imposed cuts and electing "local and national champions" for Scotland would be "a very resonant issue in the campaign". The first minister also defended his claim last year that the SNP could gain 20 seats at Westminster. With recent opinion polls putting the nationalists on about 25% and showing Salmond's personal popularity rating now at zero or in negative figures, other senior SNP figures called this an aspiration rather a realistic target. But Salmond said he did not regret naming the figure "in the slightest". He added: "We have to aim high and be ambitious in election campaigns ... that's what we've done in the last few years, and that's what we will continue to do." However, the SNP faces an uphill task to reach double figures at Westminster. In all but a handful of its 20 target seats, it needs swings of 10% to 13%, leaving only the Labour-held seats of Ochil and South Perthshire, Livingston, Dundee West, and Kilmarnock and Loudon. The SNP is vigorously targeting Dundee West, where it needs a 7.3% swing, hoping to hold both Dundee seats after polling day. There have been four byelections since the 2005 general election, with Labour losing one seat to the Lib Dems and one to the SNP, leaving the current state of the parties in Scotland at Labour 39, Liberal Democrats 12, the SNP seven and the Tories one. While many opinion polls suggest Labour will hold most of its current Scottish seats and retake Glasgow East, won by the SNP's John Mason in a byelection in 2008, the Tories are optimistic about winning further Scottish seats. This will be crucial if Cameron becomes prime minister and the Conservatives face searching questions about their mandate in Scotland. As the Tory battle bus visited the Labour-held Edinburgh South – where some bookmakers have the Tories as favourite – and Darling's seat of Edinburgh South West, Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Tory leader, said: "This is a British general election to elect a British government and a British parliament, and the simple fact is only the Conservatives can replace this Labour government at Westminster. "I am confident the Conservatives can win seats right across Scotland. People know that if they want change then the only way of achieving it is by voting Conservative." Labour, which launched its Scottish campaign in Edinburgh South, where it is defending a marginal 405-vote majority over the Liberal Democrats, promised to speak directly to 50,000 voters in target seats over the next 36 hours and deliver 100,000 "flying start" leaflets across Scotland. Jim Murphy, the Scottish secretary, said: "The choice over the coming days will determine the future of Scotland for years to come. There are only two possible outcomes – a Labour government or a Tory one. "People have a choice between an age of opportunity or an age of austerity." The Lib Dems targeted Edinburgh North & Leith, where Labour's Mark Lazarowicz is defending a 2,153 vote majority over the Lib Dems. Tavish Scott, the Scottish Lib Dem leader, disputed Tory and Labour claims that the election was solely a battle between Brown and Cameron. "In many seats across Scotland, such as this one, it is a two-horse race between the Liberal Democrats and Labour," he said. Scott also claimed the Lib Dems would unseat the only Conservative MP in Scotland, David Mundell, who is defending a 1,738 majority in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweedsdale. The Lib Dem candidate is Catriona Bhatia, the daughter of the former Lib Dem Lord (David) Steel. "The Tories only have one MP in Scotland, and it will be the Liberal Democrats who make Scotland a Tory-free zone," Scott said.