The SDLP leader has vowed the party will use its leverage in any hung parliament to negotiate the best deal for Northern Ireland.
Margaret Ritchie was speaking as she launched her party's manifesto on Wednesday.
She rejected claims by the party's opponents that it would be tied to voting with its sister party, Labour.
She insisted the SDLP would vote to protect Treasury funding and services in Northern Ireland.
The SDLP chose a west Belfast factory opened by its former leader John Hume to launch its manifesto on Wednesday.
The party claimed it could create 12,000 jobs in five years through the harmonisation of corporation tax.
Speaking at the launch, Ms Ritchie said: "Today the SDLP manifesto sets out how we intend to create 42,000 jobs in the next five years.
"This will comprise 12,000 jobs which will be a direct result of corporation tax harmonisation on the island.
'Campaign'
"We will campaign hard at Westminster to ensure that this tax harmonisation is achieved.
"It is possible also to create thousands of jobs based on Green New Deal principles - especially in the renewable energy sector."
Ms Ritchie attacked Sinn Fein's abstentionist policy insisting it was only by going to Westminster that change could be delivered.
The SDLP is defending three seats. The outgoing MP for Foyle, Mark Durkan, accused Sinn Fein of engaging in character assassination and inaccurate statements about how the SDLP had voted.
Ms Ritchie also accused Sinn Fein of trying to sectarianise the race in South Belfast, where it has pulled out.
She claimed it wants to bolster the SDLP 's Alasdair McDonnell chances of keeping the seat.
The main points of the SDLP manifesto include:
• Create 42,000 jobs through a green new deal budget and an all-island corporation tax rate.
• Lead on a shared future by pushing shared values in every aspect of government activity.
• Oppose cuts to frontline health services and revolutionise public health by starting a special preventative health fund.
• Stiffen sentencing for violent crime and making deep reforms to protect victims.
• Move on Irish unity by restarting the forum for unity and establishing a northern panel in the Seanad Eireann (Irish Parliament's upper house).
• Invest in educational excellence; more robust focus on attainment in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) at all levels of ability.
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