JEREMY Corbyn is to join the Holyrood election campaign trail for the first time today and launch an attack on the SNP's tax plans.

The UK Labour leader is expected to say that only his party is prepared to end austerity north of the border and brand Nicola Sturgeon's proposals as a "betrayal" of her position ahead of last year's general election.

He will join Scottish leader Kezia Dugdale at a campaign event in Edinburgh and claim that new powers set for Holyrood present an opportunity to end spending cuts.

Scottish Labour has said it will raise the basic and higher rates of income tax by 1p and increase the additional rate, for those earning over £150,000, to from 45p to 50p.

The SNP opposes tax rises to the basic rate, saying it would leave low earners to pay the price for Tory policies, and has said raising the top rate could prove counterproductive as it could encourage high earners to leave Scotland. The party has said it will choose not to pass on George Osborne's tax cut to the better off in full, with taxation becoming the major battleground in a Holyrood election for the first time.

Mr Corbyn is expected to say: "All over the world people are rallying against austerity. In Scotland you have the opportunity, you have the power to break from austerity using the new powers you have. That isn’t in doubt.

"The question is whether the Scottish Parliament has enough voices who are willing to use those powers to make that change. As things stand the income tax plans set out by the SNP for those powers wouldn’t provide a single extra penny for schools or hospitals, for investing in the future of the economy.

"The anger people feel at the top one per cent, from the financial crash caused by bankers, from the revelations of the Panama papers, from growing inequality, is the big issue of our age.

"The SNP have no response to that. It is incredible that the SNP won’t ask the richest to pay more. To have gone from arguing last year for taxing the top one per cent to accepting Tory arguments against it is a betrayal of everything Nicola Sturgeon promised she stood for at the general election last year. The real anti-austerity alternative in this election is Labour."

Meanwhile, the First Minister confirmed that her party will scrap air passenger duty in Scotland if reelected. Launching the party's business plan yesterday, she said the duty "simply doesn't make sense" and would boost the country's tourism industry.

The SNP has also pledged to maintain the small business bonus throughout the next Parliament, connect every household to superfast broadband by 2021 and triple the number of exporting advisers in Scotland.

It will fund new innovation and investment hubs in London, Dublin and Brussels to attract inward investment and improve domestic access to new markets and investors, and increase apprenticeships in engineering, design and technology.

Ms Sturgeon said: "Under the SNP, Scotland has the most competitive business tax environment in the UK, the number of registered businesses is at an all-time high and we are consistently ranked in the top two regions outside London for foreign direct investment.

"We want to build on these strengths and the SNP will use all of the powers available to us - both existing and new - to help all our businesses thrive."