Nicola Sturgeon promises SNP will use balance of power in British parliament to fight spending cuts

The Scottish National Party has pledged to "shake up" the British parliament if they seize the balance of power at the general election in May.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said her pro-independence party would act in the interests of left-wingers across the United Kingdom if they were in a position of influence after the May 7 polls.

Scotland's first minister used her speech on Saturday to reach out to people in the rest of the United Kingdom with a "message of friendship and solidarity".

Sturgeon said SNP lawmakers would "demand an alternative to slash and burn austerity" - referring to the public spending reductions being made in a bid to balance the budget.

She said the nationalists would stand against any attempt to renew Britain's nuclear weapons deterrent, and added it was time to abolish parliament's unelected House of Lords upper revising chamber.

At the last general election in 2010, the Labour main opposition won 41 of Scotland's 59 seats in the British parliament's 650-member lower House of Commons, to the SNP's six.