KEZIA Dugdale yesterday put education at the heart of the 2016 election, as she portrayed Labour as the party of action and change and attacked the SNP as calculating and timid.

In her first Scottish conference speech since becoming leader in August, Dugdale also set out a raft of policies for the poorest in society paid for by taxes on middle and higher earners.

She said if she won power at Holyrood, she would create a £78 million Fair Start Fund to provide extra teaching and facilities at schools with the most deprived pupils.

The money would bypass councils and go direct to headteachers to use as they wished.

It would be paid for by raising the top rate of income tax from 45p to 50p.

Dugdale also said young people who left care and went to university would get a grant of £6000 a year to help them and pledged a “real living wage” for care workers.

Castigating the SNP for failing to close the attainment gap between rich and poor pupils, Dugdale said an educated workforce was vital to Scotland’s fortunes.

“Our focus on educational inequality is not a social policy. It is our economic strategy.

“I say to the SNP after eight years in charge: I will judge you on your record. And I will judge you above all on your record on education.”

Citing the 6000 children who left primary school this year unable to read properly, she said: “That record disgraces this nation and it constrains its future.”

She mocked Alex Salmond for unveiling a statue at Heriot-Watt university commemorating his pledge never to introduce tuition fees while First Minister.

She said the legacy she wanted in universities was more youngsters from poor families.

“You won’t find me carving complacency and self-congratulation in stone.”

Dugdale said if the Tory Government pressed ahead with tax credit cuts, Labour would use new tax and welfare powers coming to Holyrood in 2017 to offset them.

The £440m bill would be met by freezing the threshold for higher rate income tax and saving £250m by not pursuing the SNP plan to scrap air passenger duty (APD).

Freezing the higher rate threshold at £43,000 instead of aping Tory plans to lift it to £50,000 by 2020 would leave Scots £1280 a year worse off than higher-rate earners in England.

“Someone has to pay,” she told around 700 delegates in Perth.

“A tax cut for those who can already afford to shop for airline tickets cannot be Scotland’s priority when families cannot afford the weekly shop.”

She received some of her biggest cheers for a section on gender equality.

“I get frustrated when I see it written that having a First Minister who is a woman means women can achieve anything - if only they work harder.

“I ask, Do you not think women work hard enough now?

“We don’t just need women in power, we need feminists in positions of influence.”

Confidently delivered and well-received in the hall, the speech was aimed at restoring Scottish Labour’s sense of purpose after its demolition by the SNP in May’s election.

The key theme was that Labour would use Holyrood’s new powers to improve lives, while the SNP was paralysed by caution and electoral calculation.

Dugdale said: "If talking about a fairer Scotland was what made the difference then Nicola Sturgeon would have made Scotland the fairest country in the world by now.

"But talking about it isn't enough. You need to change. To act. To do things differently."

The SNP were “increasingly arrogant” in government, yet froze in the face of tough decisions in case it harmed the cause of independence, Dugdale said.

“We have a government which looks at a problem and sees only the politics. We need a government that looks at a problem and sees the possibilities. We are the party of action not protest. We are the party of progress not bumper stickers and T-shirt slogans.

“Next year’s elections will be hard, but I have no intention of making it easy for the SNP either.

"The SNP are starting to make the kind of mistakes we did when we dominated Scottish politics. They see the reasons not to act rather than the way to make change.”

The SNP said Labour’s position on tax was “confused and lacking in any credibility”.

A spokeswoman pointed out Dugdale had said last week that she might use the £250m from APD to pay for education, but was now using it to offset tax credit cuts.

“The SNP will continue to act to protect people from Tory cuts. When we know the full extent of the powers to be devolved, we will bring forward credible plans to protect working people."

The Scottish Tories said Labour had retreated “to its old high tax, high spend ways”.