Salmond: Brown will sell out Scotland

• SNP leader attacks Chancellor’s patriotism in keynote conference speech

• Gordon Brown accused of being culpable for Iraq war

• Salmond goes on to accuse Brown of mishandling Scotland’s economy

Key quote

"Brown is prudent with pensioners and profligate with wars. He’s out to get the big job but has forgotten the people back home" - Alex Salmond, SNP leader

Story in full ALEX Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National Party, raised the stakes in the general election campaign, yesterday, when he claimed that Gordon Brown would "sell out" Scotland in order to become Prime Minister.

Mr Salmond used his keynote speech to the SNP’s spring conference in Dundee to launch an unprecedented attack on the Chancellor, in effect questioning his credentials as a patriotic Scot.

Responding to an attack by Mr Brown on him last week, Mr Salmond poured scorn on the Chancellor’s economic record and accused him of being culpable, along with Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, for the war in Iraq.

In a speech dripping with sarcasm and political vitriol, the SNP leader won warm applause from the party faithful for his high-risk attack on a man he described, with heavy irony, as a "Scottish hero".

Mr Salmond claimed that, under Mr Brown’s stewardship, the Scottish economy had lost 100,000 manufacturing jobs and the United Kingdom had come seventh-bottom of a child poverty league table compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

He said: "Under Brown’s stewardship, he can find the funds to fight an illegal war in Iraq - ‘We’ll spend what it takes,’ he said - but is robbing people of their pensions.

"Under Brown’s stewardship, older Scots must endure the indignity of a means test to gain entitlement to a decent pension."

The SNP leader went on: "Brown is prudent with pensioners and profligate with wars. He’s out to get the big job but has forgotten the people back home.

"The Chancellor, this Scottish hero, has covered himself in glory at the Treasury while pensioners in Scotland have been covered in poverty.

"Gordon Brown will sell out Scotland if it helps out Britain. He wants to be the next prime minister of Britain. I want to be the first prime minister of Scotland. That’s the big difference, and why I put Scotland first."

Mr Salmond pointed to a recent Labour poster launch in which, he said, Mr Brown had boasted of the longest period of economic growth for 200 years - when, in Scotland, the last downturn was only three years ago. He cited this as evidence that Labour, as well as the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, were more focused south of the Border.

The SNP leader’s verbal assault came a week after Mr Brown had described him, in the words of the poet Shelley, as someone who had "lost the power of communication, but not the power of speech".

Labour officials publicly dismissed Mr Salmond’s attack, maintaining the party line that the election would be a contest between them and the Tories.

But, in private, party strategists were delighted Mr Salmond had embarked on the high-risk tactics of attacking Mr Brown - who is about to deliver a pre-election Budget and is assumed to be in line to take the reins in 10 Downing Street from Mr Blair - over his commitment to Scotland.

One Labour party source said: "Most people here recognise Gordon’s commitment to Scotland and his achievements as Chancellor. He has a high recognition level in Scotland. People respect him and are very satisfied with the way he is running the economy."

Mr Salmond repeated his criticism of the Prime Minister’s decision to join the US-led invasion of Iraq and accused him of "peddling the politics of fear" over terrorism, contrasting this with the SNP’s message of "hope, vision and faith".

Claiming that only the SNP would "make Scotland matter" in the Westminster election, Mr Salmond unveiled three new policy proposals: for universal nursery care provision, a new "Scottish Nobel Prize" and 2,000 grants for first-time homebuyers.

The Nationalist leader hailed the SNP’s economic proposals for lowering corporation tax - an issue reserved to Westminster - from 30 per cent to 20 per cent and for using Holyrood’s powers to cut business rates.

The "Nobel" proposal - a 5 million Saltire Prize - would focus on promoting future innovation and technological breakthroughs rather than rewarding past success and achievement.

He said the grants for first-time house buyers could help prevent the "haemorrhaging" of young Scots. "It will provide a fresh incentive, a real incentive for our young talent to stay in Scotland," Mr Salmond said.

Offering more early-years education, he pledged: "A full half-day for three and four-year-olds - 50 per cent more free nursery education, a clear ambition to match the best in the world with universal provision for all pre-school Scots."

He said the SNP would invest in these policies rather than backing Labour’s "big brother" identity cards scheme, spending 1 billion on a new nuclear power station in Scotland or 2 billion on a new generation of Trident missiles on the Clyde.