SNP depute leader Stewart Hosie hit the campaign trail in Kirkcaldy to outline his party’s plans to increase public spending.
Mr Hosie met supporters and shoppers on the town’s high street, as he said the policies to end austerity would see investment in services like the NHS.
The SNP recently won a local council by-election in Kirkcaldy East, former prime minister Gordon Brown’s seat, with a 13% swing from Labour.
Mr Hosie said: “Westminster’s obsession with austerity is holding back Scotland’s economy and damaging communities across the country pushing 100,000 more children in Scotland into poverty and seeing a 400 per cent increase in people forced to rely on foodbanks.
“Austerity is failing on every level and people are crying out for a real alternative.
“The Tories are determined to ignore the fact their austerity policies have failed even by their own standards and despite claims made in recent days Labour can’t hide the fact they have shamefully backed George Osborne’s plans for a further £30 billion of cuts.
“That both these parties are wedded to the same austerity agenda while supporting spending £100bn on a new generations of weapons of mass destruction isn’t just economically illiterate it is morally indefensible.”