NICOLA Sturgeon mocked Ruth Davidson’s “constitutional obsession” yesterday after the Scottish Tories printed a leaflet for today’s council elections mentioning independence and the SNP 43 times.

The First Minister displayed the Tory flyer during First Minister’s Questions after Davidson accused the SNP of presiding over “a 10-year record of failure” on education.

Davidson claimed that standards in numeracy had fallen under the SNP and “able children” were being failed.

The job of councillors elected today, the Tory leader added: “Will be to support our schools on the ground. The SNP say that education is their top priority, but does 10 years of failure not tell an entirely different story?”

Sturgeon defended her government’s record and said if education was a priority for the Tories then they should have put it on their campaign literature.

Holding the leaflet, which had been posted through her door, the First Minister said: “It mentions me or the SNP or independence a grand total of 43 times. It mentions Ruth Davidson or the Tories just nine times, and one of those times is her signature.

“It mentions Ruth Davidson’s policies on education zero times.

“In this election, the Tories have not put forward a single policy on our schools, on social care, on roads, on transport, or on anything. They have a constitutional obsession; I will get on with raising standards in our schools.”

The local elections dominated First Minister’s Questions, which were brought forward a day to avoid clashing with today’s poll.

All of the country’s 1,227 council seats are up for grabs.

The county’s 4,710 polling stations are open between 7am to 10pm and votes will be counted tomorrow.

At the last council election in 2012, the SNP took 32 per cent of first- preference votes and Labour 31 per cent. However, the complex system of PR used in council elections meant Labour ended up with more councillors and with majorities or as the biggest party in 19 of the 32 local authorities.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale used her questions in Holyrood yesterday to accuse the SNP leader of cutting £1.5bn from local council services and being too afraid to introduce progressive taxes.

“She claims to back a 50p tax rate, but she will not implement one here in Scotland when she has the power to do so,” Dugdale said. “She claims to be protecting the national health service, but local services across the country face cuts and closure on her watch.

“She claims that education is her number one priority, but she spends every waking minute plotting how to force another independence referendum. Does Nicola Sturgeon feel any guilt at all as she tours the country warning against austerity, when it is her government that has cut £1.5bn from council services?”

The First Minister responded saying the difference between her and Dugdale was that the Labour leader did “not want to scrap austerity” but rather to “transfer the burden of austerity on to the shoulders of low-paid people right across this country”.

“Why is that?” Sturgeon asked. “It is because she prefers to allow a Tory Government at Westminster to take the big decisions about our economy rather than have them made here?”

She added: “If Kezia Dugdale is accusing this government, albeit wrongly, of short-changing local authorities, this question remains: why are only Labour councils going into this election promising to freeze the council tax?”

Meanwhile, the Tories called for an investigation after the Scottish Government announced an £8 million of investment for a project Glasgow just days before the local government election.

MSP Ross Thomson has written to Leslie Evans, the Scottish Government’s Permanent Secretary, asking why SNP Housing Minister Kevin Stewart announced £8.35m from the Scottish Partnership for Regeneration in Urban Centres fund to support the refurbishment of Dalmore House, a landmark building on St Vincent Street.

Thomson said the government was breaking strict purdah rules around making such announcements close to an election.

Official guidance states: “It needs to be borne in mind that the activities of the Scottish Government could have a bearing on the local election campaigns.”

In a point of order in Holyrood, Thomson said: “This looks like a blatant attempt to sway voters in an area that is being targeted by the SNP.

“I have written to the Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government asking for an explanation as to how this could be announced just 48 hours before voters go to the polls.

“People need to have absolute confidence that public money is not being used for party-political ends.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “A letter has been received by the Permanent Secretary and a response will be issued in due course.”