SNP issues 'Alternative Queen's speech' to prove party is real opposition in Westminster

It will also demand an emergency budget to boost public spending and reverse Tory austerity.

David Cameron’s government will set out its programme for the coming year in the speech, with bills expected on policing, investigatory powers, energy and schools.

After work by the SNP's policy team and MPs, the party in Westminster will produce an alternative list of bills.

Though these will not become law, they are designed to show current party thinking on a wide range of UK policy areas, and elements will be tabled as amendments to other legislation.

On the constitution, given independence has been parked for the foreseeable future, the SNP will push for “Scottish Home Rule” - effectively all the powers the party failed to insert in the new Scotland Act.

Holyrood should have the right to veto Trident being based in Scotland and power over employment law, industrial relations, broadcasting, tax credits, social security, corporation tax and natural resources, the SNP will say.

It will also call for abolition of the House of Lords, votes at 16, and Holyrood to have the power to hold a second referendum when it chooses without Westminster's consent.

Underlining the SNP’s ambition to replace Labour as the voice of the progressive centre-left at Westminster - and cement its grip on former Labour voters in Scotland - the party will propose measures on migration, tax avoidance, the arms trade, human rights, access to justice, social security, pensions and even cheaper funerals.

With Labour failing to provide “anything resembling” a united opposition under Jeremy Corbyn, the SNP said it would press for a 0.5 per cent rise in public spending in a summer budget to end Tory austerity cuts hurting services and the vulnerable.

SNP Westminster Group leader Angus Robertson said: “Today we set out the SNP's progressive alternative to a 'business as usual' continuation of the Tory government's failed austerity project that has held back the economy, damaged public services, and hit the poorest and most vulnerable hardest.

“Our Alternative Queen's Speech calls for change that would stand up for Scotland's interests and deliver the policies needed to build a fairer, more prosperous and more equal country.

“At a time when the Tory government should be doing everything it can to reverse the fortunes of the UK's flailing economy and to boost productivity, innovation, trade and exports, the government is instead consumed with bitter infighting and divisions within the Tory party over Europe. They have taken the eye off the ball on the economy and have failed to come up with the fresh and credible policies that the country needs to improve people's lives, strengthen our public services and to tackle inequality.

“With the Labour Party stuck in a rut, unable to unify, unable to decide what it is for, and with its MPs busy arguing amongst themselves, it once again falls to the SNP to provide the clear, consistent and effective opposition to the Tories - and that is what we will continue to do.”

Referring to Stagecoach recently losing a court case against HMRC over “clear tax avoidance” of £11m, Labour's Shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said: “If the party that accepts donations from Brian Souter wants to clamp down on tax avoidance they could start by backing Labour's call for a ban on companies who aggressively avoid tax receiving public contracts.

“In Scotland we can use the powers of our Scottish Parliament to tax the richest 1% so we can invest in schools, and stop the cuts to public services.”

Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone added: “Perhaps the SNP should sort out its own shortcomings before embarking on stunts like this.

“It may well think it can do a better job of running the UK than the present government. But voters would rather it addressed problems in the NHS in Scotland, falling standards in schools and a rural economy its incompetence starved of hundreds of millions of pounds.”