POVERTY and the economy was the focus of the parties on the campaign trail yesterday.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said her party would give parents on low incomes £600 when a child is born and then £250 when they start school. The Early Years and Maternity Grant would act as a replacement to Sure Start, first cut by the Coalition Government.

The First Minister was in Maryhill in Glasgow to visit users of Home Start, a charity which aims to support families going through difficulties.

Her party’s policy, she said, would also reinstate payments of £300 at birth for second and subsequent children, and could benefit 12,000 parents and children.

Sturgeon said: “Supporting our youngest children and making sure every child gets the best possible start in life is a central responsibility of any government. Our new Early Years and Maternity Grant will help new mums when they are expecting and support young children in their earliest years of life.

“An estimated 12,000 families will benefit from support when their child is born, when they start nursery and when they go to school.

“And unlike the Tory cuts to Sure Start grants across the UK, when we have the power we will ensure that support is available for all children – not just the first child.”

Meanwhile Labour criticised the First Minister for failing to reply to the report by the Scottish Government’s poverty tsar, Naomi Eisenstadt, and committed themselves to sign up to all 15 of her recommendations.

Leaks suggesting Kezia Dugdale had applied for work experience with an SNP MSP in 2003 seem to have resulted more in sympathy than derision for the Scottish Labour leader.

Campaigning at a credit union in Paisley, Dugdale said: “It’s not good enough for Scottish politicians to talk about being anti-poverty when we have the opportunity to actually do something about it.

“Labour’s plan is clear – we’ll ask the wealthiest few to pay just a little bit more. The price of not doing that – more cuts, more jobs lost and more children living in poverty – is simply too great.”

Patrick Harvie launched the Greens’ youth manifesto, saying his party would guarantee that every school-leaver in Scotland is offered a job, training or further education.

Harvie said: “Green MSPs in the next session of parliament will campaign for a Scotland Guarantee of a job, training or education for every school-leaver. Local authority and Scottish Government action, such as the Edinburgh Guarantee and Opportunities for All, has helped but we must be bolder. Too many young people are still left without the opportunity to work or study.”

Tory leader Ruth Davidson was in a sweet shop in Edinburgh to highlight supporting the high street and local businesses.

“It’s small local shops which make our towns and cities richer and more vibrant,” she said. “These family run stores face huge competition from the big retail giants and, as consumers, we can make choices to support them.

“So I’ll be using the campaign trail today to call on people to back independent retailers and family run shops.”

Willie Rennie used a campaign visit in Fife to try his hand at falconry.

The Scottish Lib Dem leader said rural Scotland had been let down by the SNP after IT failures led to substantial delays in EU CAP payments to farmers.

Rennie said: “The CAP payment delays have taken hundreds of millions of pounds out of the rural economy and farmers have been forced to renegotiate loans and overdrafts with their banks. This week we learned that the SNP expect farmers to stump up for interest on emergency payments that would not have been necessary if Richard Lochhead had done his job properly. They are treating rural communities with contempt.

“Farmers should not be footing the bill for SNP incompetence.”