NICOLA Sturgeon laid the blame of foodbank growth firmly at the door of the Conservatives as she campaigned against austerity.

The First Minister said in Government at Holyrood the SNP had tried to protect incomes from rising cost pressures on family budgets.

However she said the policies of the UK Government was doing damage.

Ms Sturgeon said: “The growth of foodbanks is a damning indictment of just how damaging Tory austerity has been to communities across Scotland.

“The SNP have worked to protect household incomes by keeping council tax bills low, and by supporting families at every stage of their life - from the baby box and support for new parents, to free university education, to free medicine and free personal care.

“In contrast, the Tories have argued for years that the sick should pay for their medicine, that the young should be forced into debt to pay for tuition and that the elderly should face costs for personal care.”

She was campaigning in Inverness and visited a foodbank to speak to staff and volunteers and warned that another five years of Tory government would lead to even worse.

Ms Sturgeon added: “There can be no doubt that the Tories at Westminster would use a bigger majority at this election to make ordinary families bear an even greater burden of needless austerity.”

Labour leader Kezia Dugdale meanwhile has been campaigning in Scotland’s islands warning that Brexit means communities need certainty.

She said: “Our island and rural communities have already been hit with a double whammy of SNP cuts and centralisation.

“With all of the uncertainty for local economies that will be created by Brexit the last thing island communities need is the uncertainty and division of a second independence referendum.”