SNP outlines five key pledges to fight Scottish election

The SNP leader published a mini-manifesto for the election, based around commitments to recruit thousands of teachers, nurses and police officers and plans to reduce the size of the Scottish Executive and cut the number of quangos.

Mr Swinney reiterated his commitment to hold a referendum on independence during the first four years of an SNP administration, but this did not figure as one of the party’s key priorities for the election. This reflects the leadership’s desire to attract those voters who may be sympathetic to the party’s cause, but who do not want to go as far as independence.

Mr Swinney hopes this will win over wavering Labour voters, but it is also likely to infuriate fundamentalists within his own party who will resist any attempt to water down the party’s core commitment to independence.

Five key pledges will form the heart of the SNP’s campaign, and Mr Swinney insisted the election promises - which will cost more than 600 million to implement - had been fully costed and would be funded from the Scottish budget.

He argued that the money would come from scrapping the public service reform fund, which tackles inefficiencies in public services, freezing the level of the contingency fund at 20 million, and spending 300 million from the 1.9 billion extra already allocated for the health service over the next three years.

The plans would also mean a 20 per cent cut in the size of the Executive with the 20 ministers reduced to 15, eight in the Cabinet and seven junior ministers.

Mr Swinney’s decision to publish a draft manifesto so early in the campaign represents an attempt to get the SNP message out before the other parties.

He said: "Our campaign blueprint lays out the SNP’s vision for our nation, details our policies and explains the ethos we will hold to in government ...

"We will cut government back down to size and deliver an approach to public services based on the needs of those services."