The Guardian’s Scotland correspondent Libby Brooks on the highlights of the Scottish National party’s pledges and what they mean for any coalition talks

Conservatives election manifesto 2015 - the key points Read more

NHS - vote for an increase in health spending across the UK of £24bn by 2020, which will deliver an increase in spending to the Scottish NHS of £2bn by 2020.



Labour manifesto 2015 - the key points Read more

Redistribution – the SNP will back a 50p tax rate, a mansion tax and a bankers’ bonus tax.

Libby Brooks: Here the SNP is directly matching Labour (changing policy on the 50p rate belatedly at their spring conference last month), likewise on zero-hours contracts. This allows the party to claim in Scotland that it is the genuinely progressive party, while making the argument for a progressive alliance across the UK more convincing.

Green election manifesto 2015 - the key points Read more

Trident – the SNP continues to oppose nuclear weapons and will seek to block the replacement of Trident, which they estimate will save £4bn by the mid-2020s.

Ukip manifesto 2015 - the key points Read more

Welfare – the SNP will seek to halt the rollout of universal credit and reverse the replacement of disability living allowance by personal independence payments, opposing the £3bn cut in disability funding, and voting for the immediate abolition of the bedroom tax.

Lib Dem manifesto 2015 - the key points Read more

Securing home rule – SNP MPs will demand that the proposals of the Smith commission are delivered in full and as quickly as possible, but the manifesto also states that Smith did not go far enough to honour the promises made during the referendum. The SNP will seek a phased transition to full financial responsibility, and in the meantime devolution of powers over employment policy, welfare, business taxes, national insurance and equality policy.

LB: This is one of the SNP’s expected red lines in any post-election negotiations with Labour, as is Trident. Interesting to see full fiscal autonomy rebranded “responsibility”. There seems to be an acknowledgement that this will take some time to secure, which could well be in the SNP’s favour given the parlous state of oil prices currently. The name tweak will also irritate Scottish Labour who have been hammering the risks of this policy and the £7.6bn shortfall it will create according to the IFS. “Responsibility” sounds more, well, responsible.

Work – vote to increase the minimum wage to £8.70 by 2020 and crack down on zero-hours contracts.

Climate change – the party will call on the UK government to match the approach of the Scottish government with a dedicated climate justice fund.

EU referendum – proposal that there should be a double majority requirement, whereby each of the four constituent nations of the UK would have to vote for withdrawal before the UK as a whole could leave the EU.

LB: This is highly unlikely to be accepted should a referendum be called, but immediately establishes the SNP’s opposition to it and highlights the difference in public opinion north of the border. Useful since Sturgeon has acknowledged that a decision to leave the EU could be the “material change in circumstances” necessary to put another independence referendum in her 2016 Holyrood manifesto.

Transatlantic trade and investment partnership – the SNP seeks an explicit exemption for the NHS and Scottish Water from the terms of the proposed TTIP.

Media – the SNP wants responsibility for broadcasting in Scotland to transfer from Westminster to Holyrood and supports moves to more devolution for the BBC. It also seeks increased investment through BBC Scotland so that a fairer share of the licence fee is spent in Scotland.

Housing – push for a UK-wide target of 100,000 affordable homes each year, using extra investment to expand housebuilding in Scotland.



A new northern focus – the SNP will back budget plans to invest more in the infrastructure of Scotland and the north of England, including the commissioning of high speed rail linking Glasgow, Edinburgh and the north of England.