The Tories have broken their vow to no voters, claims the SNP.

Writing for The National, Deputy First Minister John Swinney says: “the people of Scotland were promised substantial new powers in return for a No vote, and what is currently being proposed in the Scotland Bill comes nowhere near that”.

Today sees the Scotland Bill receive its second reading in the House of Commons. This will be the first chance for MPs to debate the substance of the bill. Swinney says that what the UK Government is presenting in the Commons should be regarded as a “floor” rather than a “ceiling”.

Yesterday, Swinney published amendments to the Scotland Bill that he and the Scottish Government believes would bring it “up to scratch and properly implement the Smith Agreement in full”.

Responding to the Scottish Parliament’s Devolution Committee report Swinney argues that the Scotland Bill must give Holyrood, “an explicit power to create new benefits in devolved areas” and contain an assurance “that the Scottish Parliament cannot be abolished without the consent of the Scottish people”.

Swinney says that with these “basic changes” to the bill any future administration in Edinburgh would have, “the freedom to exercise new powers without interference, like any other government”.

The Deputy First Minister also promised to “put forward proposals shortly for more powers to be devolved through the Scotland Bill including employment policy, the minimum wage, welfare, business taxes, national insurance and equality policy - the powers we need to create jobs, grow revenues and lift people out of poverty.”

Swinney’s intervention in the debate comes ahead of a meeting with Chancellor George Osborne in London today. The two ministers are expected to discuss the Scotland Bill, and Osborne’s recent announcement to cut £3bn from departmental spending, a move that will result in £177m worth of additional, and unexpected, cuts in Scotland.

Swinney will be presenting new analysis by Scottish Government civil servants showing that the by sacrificing their commitment to cut cut the deficit by 5.2 per cent of GDP by 2018-19, the UK Government could increase spending on public services and still meet its Charter for Budget Responsibility targets.

Later today, SNP MPs will attempt to pass an amendment in Westminster that would strengthen the Scotland Bill.

The amendments ask MPs to agree that “the measures proposed in the Scotland Bill are not an adequate response to the election result in Scotland and fall short of what people in Scotland want and what Scotland’s economy and society needs” and that the bill “does not fully implement the agreement reached by the five political parties in the Smith Commission”.

It is unlikely that the party’s amendment will receive support from Labour.

The amendment also criticises the UK Government for being able to veto decisions made by the Scottish Parliament in key areas.

Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Ian Murray will also table an amendment during the debate.

The Labour amendments will argue for more welfare powers to be devolved to Holyrood including the full devolution of Housing Benefit.

During his speech in the Commons Murray is expected to say: “More devolution can protect the most vulnerable in Scotland from the worst of the Tories. The major new powers coming to Scotland give us the chance to do things differently, so that never again can a right-wing government impose the bedroom tax on struggling families.

“The bill we will debate over the coming weeks isn’t perfect, but it allows us to keep the benefits of pooling and sharing resources across the UK whilst taking our own decisions in key areas. That’s what over two million Scots voted for just last year”.

In a column in yesterday’s Scotland on Sunday, Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell wrote: “The Scotland Bill and the new powers it contains are ripe with possibility.

We can provide Scottish solutions to Scottish problems, while retaining the strength and security of being part of a family of nations”.

The SNP’s deputy leader Stewart Hosie told The National: “The Scotland Bill offers the opportunity for the UK Government to come good on what it calls its respect agenda. If, however we get to the point where they don’t just simply say no to full economic powers, if they also say no to the priority powers over job creation and welfare that we had in our manifesto, if they actually say no even to bringing legislation up to where the Smith Commission said it ought to have been, then I think the Scottish people will take a particularly dim view of the UK Government and how they’re behaving towards their expectations and hopes”.