SNP manifesto launch: Nicola Sturgeon launches push for another overall majority

The SNP has made the case for another overall majority at its manifesto launch in Edinburgh.

The event was of an unprecedented scale for a Scottish parliament election, with the 72-page manifesto revealed to a 1,400 crowd at an American-style rally in Edinburgh.

Despite consistently riding high in the polls SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said she took nothing for granted.

Sturgeon said the SNP has to “earn the right” for a second independence referendum by making the case to people who voted No in 2014.

“The future of our country must always be in the hands of the people of our country,” she said.

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In a pitch for both first and second votes in Holyrood’s AMS voting system, campaign organiser and Deputy First Minister John Swinney said only another overall majority could deliver “a fairer and more prosperous nation”.

“This bold, ambitious and reforming manifesto represents my job application,” said Sturgeon.

She defended the party’s record on low crime rates, free university tuition and universal free prescriptions, and said the SNP could make Scotland “fairer and more equal” if re-elected.

Education formed a central theme of the speech.

The attainment gap between the richest and poorest children could be “substantially eliminated” in ten years, she said.

“That is a commitment I ask to be judged on.”

Policies include the implementation of the recommendations of the Widening Access Commission “in full”, a Finnish-style baby box to every set of new parents and expanded free childcare.

A new funding formula for schools would be introduced to see the Attainment Fund go into the hands of head teachers, a policy already put forward by Scottish Labour and the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

Investment in infrastructure would include £20m on roads, rail and schools and 50,000 new homes.

On equality the SNP would implement all recommendations of poverty adviser Naomi Eisenstadt, Sturgeon said, and create a Scottish Social Security Agency.

The party will look to establish a nationalised energy company to support local and community energy.

There was also a hint of more radical reform of Scotland’s governance structures. Sturgeon said there would be a focus on community ownership and participatory budgeting.

“We will work with local authorities to review their roles and responsibilities and get more powers into the hands of communities; we will look again at the structures of our NHS and at the relationships between local government and the NHS,” she said.