Gray in conference attack on SNP

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New Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray has used his first keynote speech to launch a blistering attack on the SNP and First Minister Alex Salmond.

Addressing the Labour conference in Manchester, Mr Gray said the Scottish Government had ditched a string of promises.

He also urged delegates to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Mr Gray was elected as Labour's leader at Holyrood earlier this month.

He said the nationalists had reneged on manifesto pledges to students, the elderly and parents.

They had just delivered on two tax cuts, he said, "stripping over half a billion pounds out of the Scottish budget".

And he claimed the SNP was "working actively" to see David Cameron become the next prime minister, and were using the Scottish Parliament to "let Scotland down, when we know we could use it to raise Scotland up."

When times are difficult people and parties let their true colours show Iain Gray Scottish Labour leader

Mr Gray told delegates that Labour was the "only one force for fairness in the Scottish Parliament" but warned delegates they had to "rediscover our conviction, reassert our self-belief and unite around our shared values and common purpose".

He added: "Now is the time to face outwards not in, to speak clearly about the concerns and aspirations of those we serve.

"To hold our nerve and hold our focus on the cost of living, access to housing, jobs, training, skills, schools and hospitals.

"Now is the time to unite behind our Prime Minister Gordon Brown and fight shoulder to shoulder and side by side with him for the fairer future we know we can have.

"When times are difficult people and parties let their true colours show."

He praised the actions of the prime minister and Chancellor Alistair Darling over the HBOS crisis, claiming the bank would otherwise have disappeared completely, and added: "No-one except Alex Salmond believes that HBOS would have been saved by Scottish independence."