ED Miliband has vowed there will be no Labour coalition with the SNP in the event of a hung Parliament.

The Labour leader ruled out any alliance with the Scottish party during a question and answer session in Guiseley.

His categorical statement came after weeks of Tory taunts but speaking to the party faithful at Guiseley Town Hall he stressed the country faced the threat of a Conservative coalition with Ukip.

He told the meeting: “I am not going to spend the next eight weeks speculating on what might or might not happen after the polls close.”

But he added: “Labour will not go into coalition government with the SNP. There will be no SNP ministers in any government I lead.”

Labour figures had previously dismissed speculation over a post-election deal as “nonsense”. But with polls suggesting the SNP could win dozens of seats north of the border, they had stopped short of an unequivocal commitment.

At Prime Minister’s Questions last week, David Cameron lambasted Mr Miliband as “weak and despicable” for considering a deal with “people who want to break up our country”.

In Guiseley on Monday Mr Miliband described the Conservative Party as a “real threat to the integrity of the UK”, adding “The real danger to our country is a Tory government propped up by Ukip.”

He told the meeting the election was not simply a choice between leaders or parties but was a choice between different visions for the future of the country – and he claimed the Tory vision was for the success of the rich and powerful.

Mr Miliband, who was speaking just several miles from his former school, in Horsforth, said: “It is also great to be four or five miles away from where I went to my first school, on Featherbank Mount. I have incredibly happy memories of that.”

He stressed the importance of education, and pledged to cut university tuition fees from £9,000 per year to £6,000.

He also reiterated that his party would protect the education budget in answer to a question from a governor at Horsforth school, who said his school was looking at losing £300,000 a year from its school budget because of government cuts, which would affect schools all over the country.

Mr Miliband also answered questions on issues including IS, votes for 16-year-olds, private rents and mental health.

He told the meeting Britain had to be engaged in the world and couldn’t wash its hands of problems overseas, but he said lessons had to be learned from the Iraq war, and that Britain going into military conflict should be a last resort.

But he stressed the threat from Isil had to be defeated.