LABOUR leader Ed Miliband will today warn that throwing up new borders will not make Scotland a fairer country and attack "old-fashioned" Tory politics and "SNP separatism" as recipes for failure.

At the Scottish Labour Party conference in Dundee he will condemn First Minister Alex Salmond's recent claim that independence would turn Scotland into a "progressive beacon" and blame him for damaging the economy by increasing cuts imposed by Westminster.

In a major pitch to retain the Union, he will tell activists: "Right now, every nation of the UK needs not isolation, but solidarity."

His rallying call followed a message from Scottish leader Johann Lamont last night warning party members to stop feeling sorry for themselves and get better prepared to take on Mr Salmond.

Ms Lamont, on the eve of her first full conference as party leader, had a robust message for activists meeting for their first annual conference since being hammered by the SNP in last year's Holyrood elections.

She said: "We have a long journey ahead of us but it's time to stop looking back, stop feeling sorry for ourselves and get on the front foot to fight for our values of social justice and opportunity which Alex Salmond's Government is ignoring."

In his speech this afternoon Mr Miliband, who is struggling against poor popularity ratings in Scotland, will say that this is "no ordinary time".

"We have an economy not working for the working people of our country. Wages not rising for the many, runaway rewards at the top, household bills causing monthly heartache and a younger generation asking why its prospects are worse than their parents'."

He will claim that "neither old- fashioned Tory politics nor the separatism of the SNP can possibly answer that challenge".

"The Tories because they are wedded to the old ways that got us into the crisis. The SNP, because while they award themselves the title of progressive beacon, it is neither what they are doing in practice in Government, nor what separatism would bring."

He will claim the rising number of young unemployed has been caused by Tory economic policies and blame the SNP for making the problem worse.

He is expected to say: "Alex Salmond came to England to brag about how he would turn Scotland into a progressive beacon.

"There's just one problem. He forgot about what he had done in Scotland. When George Osborne handed him the plans to make cuts to capital spending of 11%, he didn't just make those cuts, he almost doubled them. Thousands of jobs building roads, bridges, and infrastructure ripped out of the economy, not just by the Tories, but by the SNP.

"He forgot about the people of Scotland when he cut the budget of colleges by a fifth, harming the training chances for young people."

Mr Miliband will also say: "But throwing up new borders won't make Scotland fairer. If we are going to build an economy that works for working people, we have to do it together.

"The banks on your high street are the same as the banks on my high street. If we are going to reform them, we can only do it with stronger rules together, not weaker rules apart.

"If we are going to create a fairer tax system, we must avoid the race to the bottom on tax rates that separation would import.

"And if you want to create a country that is really a progressive beacon, why would you abandon the redistributive union that is the United Kingdom?"

He will also argue people in the UK believe they owe obligations to each other – "that the successful Scottish entrepreneur owes obligations to the child born into poverty in London, and the pensioner in Wales".