PERTH Scotland (Reuters) - If Scottish nationalists support a possible minority Labour government after the 2015 election, they will demand it ends state spending cuts and shelves plans to deploy new nuclear weapons in Scotland, their leader said on Saturday.
Since Scots voted by 55-45 percent to preserve the United Kingdom in a Sept. 18 referendum, support for the Scottish National Party has surged and some polls show they could become Britain's third largest party in terms of Westminster seats.
"Think about how much more we could win for Scotland from a Westminster Labour government if they had to depend on SNP votes," leader Nicola Sturgeon told party activists in Perth, 450 miles (730 km) north of London.
"They'd have to rethink the endless austerity that impoverishes our children," Sturgeon said. "They'd have to think again about putting a new generation of Trident nuclear weapons on the River Clyde."
The next British government will have to make a decision on whether to renew the Trident nuclear deterrent. Britain's four Vanguard class nuclear submarines are based at a naval base in Scotland.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout, editing by Guy Faulconbridge)