THE Tories are already plotting their campaign against Labour in the next General Election with a claim that Keir Starmer will strike a deal with the SNP.

The party believes that the plan will both bolster support amongst Unionist voters in Scotland and make people in England "nervous" about the prospect of the Labour leader becoming prime minister.

A Tory insider told The Times that due to there being "no path for Labour without Scotland" they will need some kind of support of voters north of the Border if they are to get into government.

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The insider added: "Telling people this doesn’t just help us in Scotland, it makes voters in England nervous too.”

A similar strategy was used prior to the 2015 General Election, with posters of then Labour leader Ed Miliband poking out of Alex Salmond's top pocket. David Cameron returned as Prime Minister that year and Miliband stepped aside.

The National: Conservative Party poster featuring then-Labour leader Ed Miliband in the pocket of former SNP leader Alex Salmond

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The idea of a deal has been rejected by Labour with the party previously insisting that it would make no concessions with the SNP in the event of a hung parliament, considering the alternative is a Tory government.

A Labour official told The Times that the plans show the Tories are entirely “disinterested in pulling the UK together”.

They added: “Boris Johnson and his relentless division rival the nationalists as the biggest threat to the union on the ballot at the next election. The Tories are more interested in winning a few extra seats in England than preserving the Union Boris Johnson claims to love so much.”

The next General Election in the UK is scheduled to be held in May 2024 under the Fixed Term Parliament Act, but could be held as early as 2023, when Nicola Sturgeon has indicated she wants to hold indyref2.

Since 2015 there have been two General Elections with Theresa May being voted in as prime minister in 2017 and Boris Johnson being confirmed in the role in 2019 as the UK struggled with Brexit.

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Johnson and his party have consistently said they will not back another independence vote meaning the constitutional question will likely be a main theme of the next General Election.

The pro-independence majority in Holyrood of the SNP and Scottish Greens with both parties calling for another vote on Scotland's future within this parliamentary term, but Anas Sarwar's Scottish Labour are against the prospect.

However, Labour MSP Katy Clark recently said that - despite not backing another referendum - if Holyrood votes for another plebiscite, it "should happen".

Michael Sharpe, the former general secretary of Scottish Labour, has also urged the party to back another vote.

In a column for the Daily Record, Sharpe said that the party's "dismissive stance on self-determination cut the party off at the knees from voters long-since switched to the SNP".