Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw warned that backing the SNP or Labour may lead to a “disaster”.
He said that Mr Corbyn would “cave in immediately” to the First Minister’s demands for a second vote on separation if SNP MPs help him into Downing Street in the event of a hung Parliament. In a barnstorming speech, Mr Carlaw called on Scots to act to deny the Nationalists that “bargaining power”.
Addressing activists in Edinburgh with just six days to go until polling, he insisted “stranger things” have happened in elections than Mr Corbyn becoming prime minister. While he claimed it was “extremely unlikely” the Labour leader could win an overall majority next week, Mr Carlaw said: “That doesn’t mean we are safe.
“All Corbyn needs to do next week is to deprive the Conservatives of an overall majority.
“If he does that, he has calculated that he can then get the support from elsewhere in the Commons in order to push a Corbyn-led Labour Government into Number 10.
“This is where the risk really comes from. Because we know where he’ll go casting his keekers first – here, in Scotland, to Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP.”
The party’s interim leader sent a message to voters: “We must not sleepwalk into disaster over this coming week.
“We must act instead to stop indyref2, stop Scotland going back to more division, tell her again, no, and let our country move on.”
On Labour, he said it was clear Mr Corbyn’s party had “given up on the Union”.
Mr Carlaw said: “It’s beyond any shred of doubt that Corbyn’s Labour is now prepared to offer what the SNP most want – a second referendum on independence – in order to get that majority over the line.”
While he said Labour may not win any seats in Scotland at all, he claimed Mr Corbyn and senior Labour figures south of the Border had “decided to give the SNP what they want, in return for the keys to Number 10”.
Ms Sturgeon has already vowed to send a letter demanding the formal power to hold a second independence referendum to the next prime minister before Christmas, whoever that might be.
On that, Mr Carlaw said the First Minister was “widely anticipated” to send her demand on Friday, as soon as the election result is known.
He said: “I think it is beyond naive to imagine that, when presented with that letter from Nicola Sturgeon for an immediate second referendum, Mr Corbyn won’t cave in immediately.”
The impact of having another vote on Scotland’s future in 2020, as well as possibly a second Brexit referendum, would be “brutal” and “corrosive”, the Scottish Tory leader warned.
He said it would move the focus away from tackling problems in Scotland’s NHS and schools, saying SNP ministers would be campaigning for that “instead of focusing on opening the Sick Kids hospital or dealing with the infection scandal at the Queen Elizabeth hospital or turning around the slump in maths and science performance in our schools or tackling the crisis of governance in our police service”. Mr Carlaw said: “It’s down to us to weaken the SNP’s hand – deprive them of their bargaining power – and lock that referendum away for the generation promised.”
Appealing to supporters of Labour and the Lib Dems to back his party, he said: “We need people of all political persuasions to lend us their vote and further reduce the number of SNP MPs.
“Don’t let’s sleepwalk through the week ahead. Let’s wake up to the real and present danger that a second referendum brings and let’s come together to stop it.”
His plea came as a YouGov poll for The Times suggested the SNP is on course to add an extra 11 MPs. The survey put support for the Nationalists at 44 per cent, up one point on polling in August.
The Tories are on 28 per cent, up eight points from the last poll, while Labour remains on 15 per cent.
They are followed by the Liberal Democrats with 12 per cent support, the same as in August, and the Greens with one per cent, down three points.
The analysis suggests the Conservatives would secure eight seats in Scotland, the Liberal Democrats four and Labour one.
According to projections by polling expert Sir John Curtice, this would see the number of SNP MPs increase from 35 to 46.
He said: “Most of the seats being defended by the Conservatives are highly marginal.
“Consequently, even if the party retains all the support it won in 2017, it could still lose a significant number of seats if, as our poll suggests, support for the SNP increases.”
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford welcomed the poll.
He said: “This stunning poll is a huge boost for the SNP in the final days of the election campaign, but there is a lot more work to do before polling day.”
