Party leaders make election pitches ahead of crucial Holyrood contest in May

With just over four months to go before Scots elect their next Holyrood government, the leaders of three of the largest parties lined up to make their opening pitches to voters.

While the Scottish Parliament is not yet back from its festive break, the return to work for many saw the SNP, Labour and Conservative party leaders all making keynote speeches and setting out their pledges.

Current First Minister and SNP leader John Swinney spoke out about his plan to offer a “fresh start” for Scotland with independence – insisting that an SNP overall majority in the May 7 Holyrood election will lead to a second referendum on the future of the UK.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, meanwhile, pledged to spend a £1 million plus election fund trying to oust Mr Swinney from his job, as he urged voters to put aside their anger and frustration with Sir Keir Starmer’s UK Labour Government which he accepted hasn’t “got everything right” since taking charge at Westminster.

Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay argued the election should be dominated by the cost-of-living crisis, identifying this as being the “number one concern” for voters across the country – with the Conservative setting out tax changes which he said could save “many Scottish workers £1,500 more in tax” over the five years of the next Holyrood term.

SNP leader Mr Swinney was the first of the three leaders to speak, addressing party supporters in Glasgow, saying he offered both “trusted leadership” and a “fresh start with independence”.

Recalling how the SNP’s majority win at Holyrood in 2011 led directly to the 2014 independence referendum, he set his party the “ambitious task” of winning a second majority in the Parliament.

The First Minister declared: “On May 7, the SNP’s aim is not just to win – our aim is to win the overall majority that secures Scotland the right to choose our own future.”

Independence, he said, would be “the best thing we can do for Scotland’s health service” as well as the “biggest step” to cutting energy bills and the “best way to make daily life more affordable for people”.

The SNP leader added: “There is hope for a better future for Scotland – but we have to go out and vote for it.”

With polls showing the SNP on track for a fifth consecutive election victory at Holyrood, Mr Sarwar accepted his Scottish Labour Party are underdogs in May’s elections.

Despite this he declared: “I believe we will win.”

The Scottish Labour leader sought to portray the election as a straight fight between his party and Mr Swinney’s as he accused the SNP of delivering “failing public services” while, at the same time, promising voters “on repeat that everything will be better with independence”.

Mr Sarwar said: “The SNP have had their chance. They have had nearly 20 years. They blew it.

“So, as First Minister I am offering competence, but I am also offering change.”

He said he was “standing as a candidate for first minister on a platform and a promise that our national life can be better than this”.

Mr Findlay, meanwhile, hit out at Labour and the SNP for imposing “higher tax rates in order to fund an ever-growing benefits bill”.

He vowed the Conservatives would seek to change this, saying they wanted to cut taxes for those higher earners paying the 42p rate of income tax in Scotland’s devolved system, saying this would be done by increasing the threshold for the tax band in line with inflation.

Tories also want to cut income tax to 19p for lower- and middle-income earners, with Mr Findlay’s party further pledging to increase the threshold at which people start paying the income tax in line with inflation for every year of the next Holyrood term, with similar increases also planned for the various tax bands.

These plans mean that “over the lifetime of the next Parliament, we will finally close the egregious tax gap that costs many Scottish workers £1,500 more in tax”, the Scottish Tory leader said.

Mr Findlay added that the First Minister could bring about such changes “if only he had the bravery to cut Scotland’s soon-to-be £10 billion benefits bill”.