SCOTTISH Labour leader Kezia Dugdale challenged the SNP yesterday to stop “posing as socialists” and prevent cuts to public services by adding 1p to the rate of income tax.

Funding for local councils is set to be slashed by £350 million today if the Scottish government’s budget is passed at Holyrood.Setting out her “radical alternative,” Ms Dugdale said the cuts could be avoided completely if the Scottish government used its new tax-raising powers.

She said a 1p increase in income tax could raise £500m to fund schools, which face £130m of cuts, as well as social and leisure services run by councils.

Throwing down the gauntlet to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Ms Dugdale said she faced a choice between copying Tory austerity or breaking with it.“You would think that would have been an easy choice for the SNP,” she said.

“They have dominated Scottish politics using a simple argument: that more powers mean fewer cuts.

“Yet when the moment came, when the powers were put into the hands of the nationalist government, when they could have seized the opportunity for change, they didn’t choose to be different from the Tories, they chose the same financial choices as George Osborne.”

Ms Dugdale said there would be enough cash left to compensate the lowest-paid workers to ensure that they “won’t lose a penny.”

Her plan was backed by council workers’ union GMB, which said it could prevent the 8,785 job losses “on the way” at Scottish councils as a result of funding cuts.

But SNP business convener Derek Mackay branded her plan a “cynical gimmick” which would “shift the burden of Tory austerity onto working people.”