Labour’s deputy leader Kezia Dugdale has called on the SNP to tell voters whether it will push for full fiscal autonomy to be included in new Westminster legislation handing more powers to Scotland.
Ms Dugdale’s party has pledged to bring forward a home rule Bill within 100 days of taking office if it wins the general election.
The SNP – poised to win a significant number of Scottish seats according to opinion polls – has declared that “real powers” for the Scottish Parliament would be one of its demands at the UK Parliament.
Challenging Nicola Sturgeon at First Minister’s Questions, Ms Dugdale said: “Can the First Minister confirm whether her MPs will table amendments to this Bill to legislate for full fiscal autonomy within the UK?”
Ms Sturgeon responded: “Firstly, we will be happy to support any Bill that transfers powers from Westminster to the Scottish Parliament.
“Secondly, yes, the SNP MPs will seek to strengthen any Labour bill or indeed any Tory bill to bring more powers to the Scottish Parliament.”
She added: “The SNP stands for independence, I don’t think that is any secret, and yes, we stand short of independence for maximum powers for this parliament, and that is what we will argue for.”
Ms Dugdale said full fiscal autonomy was “the SNP’s central general election demand” but she said the move would mean an “extra £7.6 billion of cuts” in Scotland.
She called on Ms Sturgeon to have the “backbone to push for the full fiscalautonomy within the UK she says she believes in” and the “guts to admit (fullfiscal autonomy) would be a disaster for Scotland’s public services”.
Ms Dugdale said: “She can’t bring herself to say the words full fiscal autonomy – it defies belief.
“It seems the SNP are developing a bad habit of concealing their plans for even more austerity on the people of Scotland.
“Because we know that full fiscal autonomy would impose an extra £7.6 billion worth of cuts in Scotland.”
She added: “In this chamber on March 19, the First Minister said of George Osborne’s budget: there is plenty that I would choose to reverse, starting with the austerity cuts that are going to be deeper than anything we have seen before.
“Can the First Minister tell us how much spending would increase in 2015/16 under the SNP’s plans compared with the Tories?”
Ms Sturgeon said: “The only cuts on the horizon for Scotland are the £30 billion cuts that the Tories have proposed and Labour have signed up to.
“Scotland’s share of that £30 billion cut would be £2.4 billion.”
She said her alternative included “modest spending increases” during the next UK parliament, which would provide additional spending of more than £140 billion over its lifetime.
“There is the choice people face, they can vote for Labour or the Tories, or the Liberals, and they are voting for more austerity cuts, or they can vote SNP, and they are voting for a clear alternative to austerity,” Ms Sturgeon said.
But Ms Dugdale said the SNP did not intend to spend “a single extra penny”more than the Tories in 2015/16.
She added: “I can’t work out what has forced such a radical change in the SNP’s economic thinking.
“They tell us they are anti-austerity but they don’t plan to spend a single penny more than the Tories.
“They tell us they stand for public services but they cut education spending – something the Tories didn’t even do.
“They say they are for full fiscal autonomy within the UK but they can’t tell us when.”
She added: “The SNP won’t come clean because they know full fiscal autonomy would be a disaster.”
Ms Sturgeon said under existing powers, she would spend an extra £600 million in the next financial year.
Mounting an attack on Labour’s own spending proposals, the First Minster added: “Labour can duck and they can dive, but the Scottish people have got Labour’s measure.
“They know Labour is proposing further austerity and they know the only alternative to Tory, Labour, Liberal austerity is the SNP.”
Conservative leader Ruth Davidson insisted that “no businesses have come outfor full fiscal autonomy”.
“There is a very simple bottom line that job creators are telling the world that conservative policies across Britain have shown that the UK is open for business,” she said.
“Those policies have delivered 174,000 extra jobs in Scotland, 54,000 fewer job seekers and created 38,000 more businesses here.
“At this election, Scotland faces a choice: back to work with the Conservatives or back to economic chaos with Labour, but this time with the SNP holding them to ransom.”
Ms Sturgeon said: “The Chancellor of the Exchequer, a member of her party, has missed his own financial targets in this parliament to the tune of £150 billion.
“That’s the reality of Tory stewardship of the economy.”
She added: “The SNP is leading the polls in Scotland for the General Election, although I take nothing for granted.
“If people in Scotland vote SNP they know that they will get a loud voice for Scotland in the House of Commons and progressive politics.”