Plans by the Scottish Government to lease-off public forests are to be dropped, Labour claimed yesterday.

Plans by the Scottish Government to lease-off public forests are to be dropped, Labour claimed yesterday.

Labour rural affairs spokeswomen Sarah Boyack said "another humiliating climbdown" was imminent for the plans, which had been universally condemned.

In a speech to the Scottish Labour conference in Dundee, she said: "For the sake of our wood-processing industries and for the sake of rural jobs I demand that the SNP admit they were wrong all along and dump these proposals this week."

The government has argued that £200m could be raised from leasing a quarter of forests, with the cash then used to speed up tree planting to tackle global warming. But Ms Boyack told the conference: "Their proposals to privatise a quarter of Scotland's public forests for 75 years have shown the SNP in their true colours. The proposals were dreamed up by the Rothschilds - Thatcher's favourite bank. So the SNP walk where even Thatcher feared to tread."

The conference also heard a call by Labour for the Scottish Government to back a bid by a Glasgow-based company to become Europe's leading manufacturer of electric cars.

Labour economy spokesman John Park said Allied Vehicles, which make electric taxis, vans and minibuses, had asked the Scottish Government to invest £15m, which would buy 100 vehicles and create 100 jobs.