Scottish Labour promise a 'childcare revolution'

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale launched her manifesto in Edinburgh this morning, insisting Labour is the "only party offering an alternative to austerity".

She has urged voters to look beyond the arguments of Scotland's past and back her party and its plan to raise taxes to fund public services.

Economic experts at IPPR found "the difference between Labour and the SNP plans was nearly £1billion of cuts a year by the end of the next parliament" the manifesto states.

Labour will scrap the council tax and replace it with a new system where 80% of households pay less and heavily tax the richest 1% to pay for a Fair Start Fund worth £1,000 for every deprived child.

The party will also promote a breakfast club in every primary school to helpparents back to work and give children leaving care a £6,000 college grant.

It will also ban companies engaging in tax avoidance from bidding for publiccontracts and open those delivering public contracts to scrutiny under freedom of information.

Labour has ruled out another independence referendum for the lifetime of the next parliament and confirmed its opposition to the renewal of Trident.

Both policies have caused difficulties for Keiza Dugdale as she has indicated she will not stop her members campaigning for independence and briefly indicated she may back independence if the UK votes to leave the European Union, a comment she has since retracted.