NICOLA Sturgeon must answer five key questions to show she is serious about women's lives and not just their votes in the referendum, the shadow Scottish secretary said yesterday.

Margaret Curran laid down the challenge to the Deputy First Minister a week before their head-to-head debate at the Scottish Women's Convention on Saturday.

The Glasgow East MP said Sturgeon needed answers on how an independent Scotland would: pay for pensions; close the 32% pay gap for part-time female workers; support single mothers; guarantee current levels of child benefit and maternity pay; and ensure equal gender representation in politics.

In a speech to Labour activists in Glasgow yesterday, Curran claimed the SNP were offering "empty chat-up lines" rather than honest debate.

She said the SNP's promise of more free childcare provision after independence was no reason to vote Yes, as it could be achieved under Holyrood's current powers.

She said: "If Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP think that improving the lives of women and children with more childcare is the right thing, they should do it now. Not doing that is treating women like second-class citizens."

Citing Westminster legislation such as the Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act, she said: "They [the SNP] don't want to have an honest debate with women across Scotland and recognise how much the union has improved their lives and livelihoods."

She said independence posed the "real risk to women".

Eilidh Whiteford, the SNP work and pensions spokeswoman at Westminster, said: "The welfare state is being dismantled by Westminster and women are being the hardest hit. I believe women have the most to gain from a Yes vote."

The Women for Independence group said: "It is not good enough to gamble with Scotland's future by asking women to wait for the outcome of Westminster elections that are unlikely to reflect the votes of women in Scotland."