SNP vows to win more power over business tax and welfare

The Scottish National party will make it a priority to win greater power over business taxes, welfare and the minimum wage following its landslide general election victory in Scotland, party leader Nicola Sturgeon has signalled.

Ms Sturgeon said she had made clear in a telephone conversation with David Cameron, prime minister, that devolution to the Scottish parliament would have to go well beyond the package of powers brokered last year by Lord Smith of Kelvin.

"David Cameron didn't give me any indication that he wanted to move beyond the current Smith Commission proposals," the Scottish first minister told the BBC on Sunday. "I think he has to."

The SNP won 56 or Scotland's 59 Westminster seats on Thursday, a crushing victory with far-reaching implications for the UK's political and constitutional status quo.

Ms Sturgeon reiterated that she did not see the victory as a mandate to reopen the issue of Scottish independence after last September's referendum, but insisted Westminster must listen to the "voice of Scotland" as never before.

The SNP victory highlighted diverging political trends in Scotland and England, which gave the Conservatives a surprise parliamentary majority. And analysts say it will hugely increase pressure to go beyond the Smith package, which includes control over income tax rates and the ability to create welfare benefits.

Critics say the complex Smith proposals are a recipe for friction - former Scottish Labour first minister Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale on Sunday called them a "shambles" - and that they should be rethought as part of a more considered attempt to revamp the UK's constitutional structure.

Some observers have said Mr Cameron might embrace the SNP's call for "full fiscal autonomy", under which Scotland would take control of all tax raising, transferring some funds to the UK government for shared costs, such as defence and debt service.

But with oil prices low, this could be hugely damaging to Scottish government financing and Ms Sturgeon made clear fiscal autonomy was not a priority - and that even if agreed it would be "implemented over a period of years".

Instead she highlighted much more modest devolution over business taxes, welfare policy and employment in order to "help grow the economy". SNP officials cite as examples control over national insurance payments and the ability to use corporate research and development tax credits to encourage innovation.

Ms Sturgeon has made clear that the top political priority of the SNP's new cohort of members of the UK parliament will be to oppose continued spending cuts by the Conservatives.

"Scotland clearly doesn't want austerity to continue, and there are discussions we will require to have about the Scottish parliament and Scottish government's budget," she said.

But SNP hopes that they would become the swing vote in a hung parliament were dashed by the Conservative's victory and analysts say the party could struggle to live up to high supporter expectations given its limited clout in the 650-seat House of Commons.

Ms Sturgeon suggested the SNP would seize the leading role in calling for higher spending while Labour struggles to regroup and elect a new leader. "Given that Labour are entering a period of introspection and questioning their very purpose in life, the SNP is going to be the principle opposition to the Conservatives," she said.

At a photo opportunity for the SNP's newly elected MPs on Saturday, former party leader Alex Salmond said it would be able to take advantage of divisions within Mr Cameron's government over EU membership and other issues.

Mr Salmond, a former first minister who is returning to the House of Commons, cited the experience of former Tory prime minister John Major, which had a majority three times as large but had "run into the sands in about six months" after the 1992 election.

"A Cameron government won't be too long before he goes the same way as John Major," Mr Salmond said.

The former SNP leader also said he saw the election victory as a "staging post" in Scotland's political development toward independence.

But Ms Sturgeon dismissed suggestions this meant the SNP would seek to use its new MPs to push for another referendum. "I said expressly to people in Scotland that if they voted SNP, and half of the Scottish population did, I would not take that as an endorsement of independence. I stick to that position," she said.

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