DAVID Cameron has been accused of a "brutal betrayal" of Scotland after the Tory General Election manifesto outlined a plan to introduce an English rate of income tax that Scottish Labour insisted would fracture Britain's tax system.

 

Jim Murphy, the Scottish Labour leader, launched a stinging attack against the Prime Minister, accusing him of staging a "desperate and craven attempt to woo Ukip voters at the expense of the UK tax system".

While Stewart Hosie, the Deputy SNP leader, said the Tory leadership had "effectively ripped up the Smith Commission report".

In it, Scotland's five parties agreed that income tax would remain a "shared tax" with Westminster and Holyrood having control of it. "MPs representing constituencies across the whole of the UK will continue to decide the UK's Budget, including income tax," it added.

But the Tory manifesto, launched in Swindon by the Prime Minister, extends the principle of English votes for English laws - whereby English MPs get a veto over legislation that relates solely to England - to financial matters.

This will include "an English rate of income tax when equivalent decisions have been devolved to Scotland".

But Mr Murphy believes this will lead to an "official barring of Scottish Labour MPs from the UK Budget" and could threaten the Barnett Formula, the mechanism used to allocate resources to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

He said: "This is a brutal betrayal of Scotland and the Smith consensus. This is the end of the Smith consensus. This whole thing stinks; it is the official banning of Scottish Labour MPs from the UK budget."

Mr Murphy claimed the "dramatic development" turbo-charged Labour's case for defeating the Tories but should not be used by the SNP as a reason for another independence referendum.

He said Scotland was now in danger of being caught in a classic pincer movement between a Tory Party that wanted to cut Scotland out of the UK budget and the SNP that wanted to cut Scotland out of UK taxes.

"It's a pretty dramatic development. It's belligerent, it's brutal and it's a betrayal," he added.

While Mr Hosie agreed that Mr Cameron and his colleagues had reneged on the Commission agreement, he also claimed Mr Murphy had been embarrassed because he had "campaigned shoulder to shoulder with the Tories for two and a half years before the referendum".

But in a strong riposte to the criticism, Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, accused Labour of peddling "complete and utter nonsense".

She said: "Scottish MPs will still vote on the Budget and will still vote on the reserved elements of income tax such as the personal allowance and the rate on savings and dividends.

"This is a desperation ploy from Scottish Labour after Jim Murphy got a smack down from his London colleagues yesterday. Nobody will be taken in by it."

At the manifesto launch, Mr Cameron held out the prospect of the "good life" for hard-working Britons as he claimed the Tories were now the party of working people.

He set out plans for a tax-free minimum wage, doubling free child care and extending right to buy in England.

The Tory leader claimed a Labour government would mean more borrowing, spending, debt, taxes and out-of-control welfare but stressed that if the SNP had an influence on it, the situation for the UK would be "even worse".

"Labour has written a very thin manifesto with very little detail. The SNP are now going to write what I suspect will be a more detailed list, which they will then try to enforce on to an Ed Miliband government.

"And here is the point of this election: if you want to stop the horror of an Ed Miliband government backed by the Scottish National Party, it's no good voting Liberal Democrat, they could help make it happen, it's no good voting Green, it's no good voting Ukip.

"You have to vote for the Conservative Party as the only party that can secure a majority government to keep Britain on the right track," he added.

Today in Essex, Ukip will launch its manifesto, offering, Nigel Farage said, "serious, fully-costed policies" for people who "believe in Britain".

These will include an in/out referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union "as soon as possible", a five-year ban on unskilled migrants coming in to the UK and a points-based system for others are among its key pledges.

Meantime, the Liberal Democrats at their manifesto launch in London will propose increasing funding for education in England from "cradle to college" by £5bn a year more than the Tories and £2.5bn more than Labour by 2020.

Nick Clegg said: "The manifesto has one simple ambition and word at its heart: opportunity.

"It's a very old, liberal idea, the idea that everybody should be able to live out their life to the full regardless of the circumstances of their birth, regardless of the income of their parents, regardless of where they come from.

"Education is the great liberator of people's potential so we need to make sure we support the education system in the next parliament to give every boy and girl the chance to thrive," he added.