Scottish Labour manifesto 2016: key points

Leader Kezia Dugdale said the Scottish Labour manifesto was the party at its “boldest best”, returning to its traditional roots.

“This isn’t just a manifesto of ideas,” she said, “it is a manifesto of an idea: a belief that trend isn’t destiny”.

At the heart of it is a pledge to end austerity by increasing public spending in real terms, paid for by a rise of 1p on the basic and higher rate of income tax. A higher additional rate of 50p would be levied on those who earn over £150,000.

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This, Labour says, would stop local government cuts in education, social care, the arts and other services.

Education and skills feature heavily, with Labour proposing merging Skills Development Scotland and Scottish Enterprise into a single agency, Skills Scotland, which would focus on building skills relevant to localities.

Nursery and primary head teachers would be given fair start funding of £300 and £1,000 respectively per deprived pupil to close the attainment gap, and breakfast clubs would be rolled out in every school to tackle inequality and contribute to flexible childcare.

At the end of the school day, sports clubs would be expanded using proceeds from George Osborne’s sugar tax.

Targets dominate the party’s health policies, with guarantees on primary care appointments in 48 hours, cancer diagnosis in a fortnight and a social care package within a week. The maternity grant for new mothers would be doubled.

The party would build 60,000 affordable homes, 45,000 of them council houses or housing association properties.

Labour would nationalise Scotrail, prevent the privatisation of CalMac and ban fracking. It would repeal the football sectarianism act and pause implementation of the named person scheme.

Lastly, the manifesto contains a commitment to campaign against the renewal of Trident and rules out a second referendum on independence in the next parliament.