LABOUR has stepped up its bid to turn the tide against an SNP surge in its traditional heartlands, as Gordon Brown pledged that an extra £800 million will be spent in Scotland if his party wins power.

The former Prime Minister said that the cash would be used for the NHS, tackling poverty and creating jobs, as both Labour and the SNP hit the campaign trail in the key battleground constituency of Glasgow East.

The seat is currently held by Labour's shadow Scottish Secretary Margaret Curran, although Natalie McGarry has been hotly tipped to overturn a majority of almost 12,000 and win the seat for the nationalists.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was also in the constituency yesterday, as she attempted to drive home her message that a strong group of SNP MPs at Westminster would ensure Scotland's voice was heard "like never before" in the UK parliament.

Mr Brown, speaking at the Calton Parkhead Parish Church alongside Ms Curran, said that the £800 million would be raised through a bank bonus tax, mansion tax and reforms to corporation tax as he described the forthcoming vote as the "social justice election".

The ex-Labour leader, who is standing down as an MP, said: "While others want to talk about coalitions, deals, pacts, hung parliaments, confidence and supply motions - insider Westminster talk - we will spend all our time discussing with the people what really matters: poverty, unemployment, deprivation, bad housing, inequality and the neglect of the NHS.

"This £800 million, which will be money added on top of what we assume to be the year-on-year departmental spending totals, will mean an end to Tory austerity from 2015 and it will bring a double benefit - tackling poverty, unemployment and the neglect of the NHS with one of the biggest boosts to social justice in years. When it comes to the concrete policies, who is going to do something about inequality?

"Is it the SNP, who wake up in the morning thinking only 'How can I make Scotland independent?' or is it the Labour Party, where everyone wakes up in the morning saying 'What can I do to advance social justice in my community?' It's the Labour Party that's the party of social justice and fairness."

A series of polls have suggested that Labour is facing a catastrophic defeat north of the border in May, with some indicating that the SNP is on course to win all but a handful of the country's 59 seats.

Ms Sturgeon predicted that her party would hold the balance of power in a hung parliament, a situation she said she would exploit to "ensure that Scotland's priorities become priorities at Westminster."

She added: "We can achieve an end to the austerity cuts - implemented by the Tories and backed by Labour - which are causing so much damage in our communities, and holding our economy back. Rather than wasting £100 billion on useless, immoral nuclear weapons of mass destruction, based just thirty miles from the city of Glasgow, we can instead invest in public services like our NHS."

The SNP's Depute Leader and treasury spokesman Stewart Hosie rejected a claim from Mr Brown made during his speech that a document revealed that the SNP administration at Holyrood had accepted Tory plans for no additional spending in the next financial year. Mr Hosie branded the suggestion "ludicrous", saying the budget for the next financial year had already been set by the UK coalition.

He added: "The fact Labour are pinning their hopes on someone who has now retired from frontline politics speaks volumes about their desperation.

"The SNP has been totally consistent in opposing Westminster cuts while Grown Brown campaigned shoulder-to-shoulder with the Tories in the referendum to ensure that Scotland's budget is determined by Westminster - and Labour MPs have since voted with the Tories for a further £30 billion in cuts.

"This announcement is almost entirely recycled from recent Labour funding announcements and it is insulting the people of Scotland to think they won't see through it."

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy will today reiterate a pledge to end the need for food banks, through the creation of a £175 million Scottish Anti-Poverty Fund.

The party will say that more than 60 children a day are reliant on food handouts, with Mr Murphy expected to claim that a vote for anyone other than Labour risks allowing David Cameron the chance to "continue his legacy of food banks and poverty."

A spokesman for the SNP said: "This is exactly the same announcement that Jim Murphy made last week - and is completely contradicted by Labour's record in backing cuts to disabled benefits, to freezing child benefit, to means testing the Winter Fuel Allowance, and to committing to £30 billion more cuts in the next Westminster parliament."