THE First Minister set out a “three-point plan” to tackle poverty and inequality as she warned that five million more children across the UK would be plunged into poverty if the Tories win next week’s election.

Unveiling the SNP’s General Election manifesto yesterday Nicola Sturgeon told more than 1000 supporters in Perth the Conservatives would forge ahead with “dismantling” the welfare system and cutting social security by an additional £9 billion.

She stated that her party offered an alternative, with an ambition for a more socially just society at its heart.

Her plan focused on increasing the minimum wage to the level of the real living wage — just over £10 an hour — by the end of the next Parliament; reviewing a 1 per cent public sector pay cap in Scotland; and restoring “fairness to the social security system”.

“The dismantling of the post-war welfare state, already underway, will pick up pace,” she said with regard to a new Tory government.

“Experts are already predicting the biggest rise in inequality since the 1980s. They say that the incomes of the poorest third of working age households will fall by 10 per cent over the next four years and that Tory policy will drive one million more children across the UK into poverty.

“That means that by 2021, there could be more than 5 million children across the UK — a number equivalent to the total population of Scotland — living in poverty in one of the richest countries in the world. That is shameful and our manifesto puts it at the heart of this election.”

She promised SNP MPs would support the reversal of the two-child cap on tax credits and to “campaign tirelessly” against “the rape clause”.

She added: “For the Tories, austerity cuts are not simply a policy response to a particular economic situation. They are political dogma — an ideology. Children, the elderly, women, the disabled — even the bereaved — are bearing the brunt.”

In terms of the economy, the SNP manifesto pledged over the course of the next parliament to free up £118bn of public money across the UK to create jobs, safeguard public services and protect household incomes.

She said the UK Government’s cuts to public spending had “held the economy back” which was why it had failed to meet its fiscal targets.

Instead, her approach would be to balance the UK budget for day-to-day spending by the end of the parliament, and after that: borrowing only to invest; return the deficit to its pre-crash long term average; and to set debt on a downward path.

“These responsible fiscal targets will return the UK’s finances to a stable and sustainable position and, crucially, they will also free up an additional £118bn of public investment over the next parliament to grow the economy, safeguard public services and protect household incomes,” she said.

“Jobs and the economy are central to this manifesto ... these have been challenging economic times ... but at the end of last year, Scotland’s GDP per head was above its pre-recession level.

“Productivity has been growing faster than the UK and unemployment is lower than the UK average.”

The Scottish Conservatives said: “This was a tired manifesto launch by a First Minister who has failed in this campaign to give people a single, positive reason for voting for her party.

“Nicola Sturgeon knows it is a two horse race between our two parties in seats right across the country.”

While much of her speech attacked the Tories she also criticised Labour which she said would only reverse a quarter of welfare cuts.