The SNP and the Conservatives have been on the campaign trail today,

The general election gives Scots the opportunity to say "enough is enough" on the UK Government's austerity plans, SNP depute leader Stewart Hosie has said.

The party's Westminster group leader was on the campaign trail in Dundee today, urging voters to back the SNP so that it holds "the balance of power" after the May vote.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called for the next UK Government to spend £180 billion more during the course of the next Parliament.

She argues the move will boost the economy and create jobs.

Greater spending and an end to "austerity economics" is one of the SNP's key demands, should it be in a position of influence if there is a hung Parliament.

Mr Hosie said: "The general election in May is the people of Scotland's opportunity to tell Westminster enough is enough on unfair cuts.

"For five years, these unfair Westminster cuts have hit the poorest hardest - with women and disabled people consistently bearing the brunt.

"But yet despite unprecedented cuts to the Scottish budget, the SNP in government used the powers it has to focus on fairness - with policies such as the Living Wage putting more money in the pockets of our lowest paid workers, free tuition benefiting our students, and improvements to childcare helping our families. We have shown there is another way.

"First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has set out some of the measures the SNP in a hung Parliament at Westminster will take to bring about progress - including backing £180 billion investment across the UK over the next parliament to boost the economy, creating more jobs and opportunities.

"We will also 'lock out' the impact of cuts on vulnerable people by requiring all UK budgets and welfare policy to be subject to the same stringent equality assessment as already applies in the Scottish Parliament."

Meanwhile, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has called on her party to speak up "for the underdog and the outsider".

In a speech at the party's Wales conference, she said the Tories should "take on" establishment power in all its guises.

Highlighting tax avoidance and devolving power to local communities as central aims, Ms Davidson said it is time for the party to shake off the "caricature of us as the party of the establishment".

The MSP said the SNP are the "establishment in Scotland" and should be challenged.

Speaking to an audience in Cardiff, she said: "In many parts of the country, we face an uphill battle proving to people that we, the Conservative party, are on their side.

"We can't hide from these facts. We can't dismiss them as not being there. We have to tackle them head-on.

"And we do it by working twice as hard, and above all by explaining why our values are Scotland's values; by explaining the reasons behind our beliefs.

"And we do it by challenging people.

"I know our critics like to try and paint a caricature of us as the party of the establishment, as the party that is only there for the people who've made it in life. We're not."

"Too often, we've just sat back, apologised for ourselves, and failed to hit back against that kind of nonsense.

"Well, I say no more."

The party in Scotland has targeted Liberal Democrat voters in some areas to persuade them to switch their support ahead of the general election.

Ms Davidson visited the Borders this week to talk with ''traditional middle-ground voters'' who may have opted for the Lib Dems in 2010.

In her speech today, she said: "I want to take on the establishment in all its guises.

Whether that's corporations which dodge their fair share of tax, whether that's unions which seek to use their power to block necessary change.

"Or, in Scotland, whether it's a centralising SNP government which takes power away from the communities of Scotland, in order to gather more power for itself.

"They're the ones in Scotland who are trying to run the country by central diktat and with untrammelled power. They're the establishment in Scotland, not us.

"The Conservative party I know isn't the party of the establishment.

"The Conservative party is the party of the underdog, the outsider, the grafter who wants to take a risk."

A Scottish Labour spokesman said: "We've had the Oscars and the Brits in the past week, if Ruth Davidson is saying the Tories are an anti-establishment party she must be up for a British Comedy Award."