SCOTTISH Labour are preparing to weaponise the SNP’s Growth Commission report in an early election campaign by saying it proves the Nationalists are ready to embrace austerity.

Labour said the economic blueprint for independence, which has infuriated the Left of the Yes movement, was a “game changer” that would help bracket the SNP with the Tories.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard told activists in Glasgow he believed an election was “almost certain” as a result of Theresa May’s Brexit plans collapsing this summer.

Scottish Labour would then go into the poll citing the Commission as evidence that the SNP was happy to accept austerity as the price of independence.

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On a broad election footing since 2017, Scottish Labour is currently stepping up its efforts, selecting Westminster candidates for key target seats by July.

A Labour recovery in Scotland, where the party has just seven of the 59 seats, is seen as critical to Jeremy Corbyn’s chances of entering Downing Street.

MSP Neil Findlay, Labour’s campaign spokesperson, said the Growth Commission underscored a “dividing line” between Labour and the SNP on the economy.

He told The Herald: “The Growth Commission report is a real game changer and an eye-opener for many who supported Yes in the referendum because they wanted a fairer, more equal Scotland. That ain’t going to happen under the Growth Commission.

“But it will happen under the Labour party under Richard Leonard and Jeremy Corbyn.”

The 354-page report, which the First Minister commissioned from corporate lobbyist Andrew Wilson, forecasts years of tight public spending to halve Scotland’s deficit after a Yes vote; a cap on corporation tax; and keeping the pound and being tied to UK monetary policy.

It has been called a “suicide note” by a former adviser to Alex Salmond and rejected by a host of voices on the Left of the Yes movement, including the Common Weal thinktank.

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Scottish Labour has branded the report a “cuts commission”.

At an event confirming Cowdenbeath MP Lesley Laird as Scottish Labour deputy leader, Mr Leonard attempted to make the report a key wedge issue between Labour and the SNP.

He was scathing about its origins and content, noting it was compiled with the help of 20 business organisations, but not a single trade union.

He said it was “a prospectus based on a hard decade of public spending contraction, and even deeper cuts than those implemented by George Osborne” to cut the deficit.

He said the currency plan was not “sovereignty regained but sovereignty lost… sovereignty lost over interest rate policy, mortgage rate policy, exchange rate policy, inflation policy money supply policy and corporation tax policy”.

He said Labour offered voters hope over austerity, with a redistribution of wealth and power, and a greater role for unions in “interventionist” state economic planning.

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Whereas the SNP Commission represented “a fiscal agenda in thrall to big business and slavishly following the mantra of deficit reduction”, political isolationism, and no space for trade unions or workers’ rights as part of a strategy to promote economic growth.

“That’s not just the Tory vision for the economy - it is now Nicola Sturgeon’s too.”

In a Q&A, he set Labour’s criticisms in context of an early election campaign.

He said Mrs May’s Brexit plan would “almost certainly not command support across parliament” when it was put to a meaningful vote later this year, and be “voted down”.

He said: “At which point I think there would be a constitutional crisis, which would in turn pave the way for a UK general election, and at that general election I would want to see Jeremy Corbyn returned as Prime Minister.”

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Mr Findlay said Labour was on a constant campaign footing, adding: “Such is the shambolic state of the Tory party at Westminster, I think the potential is for them to get rid of Theresa May once they find someone they hate slightly less than her. It would be naive for any political party not to be on a campaign footing under the current circumstances.”

Green MSP Patrick Harvie said Scottish Labour’s record didn’t live up to its rhetoric.

He said: “Perhaps one day Labour will unite, prove the polls wrong and beat the Tories at Westminster and finally summon the nerve to do what’s right and help stop the Brexit crisis. However, their record of inaction at Holyrood doesn’t suggest change is coming soon.”

Scottish LibDem MSP Tavish Scott added: “Richard Leonard is right to say that that an independent Scotland would have less money to spend on public services but he's silent on his own party's collaboration with the Tories over Brexit.”

SNP MSP Kate Forbes said: "At a time when the Tories are inflicting austerity on Scotland and newspapers are reporting threats of food, petrol and medicines running out after Brexit, it beggars belief that Labour’s new leader chooses to spend his time peddling the same tired old discredited scare stories about independence – it is no wonder that Labour are still trailing the chaotic and confused Tory party in the polls.

"The Sustainable Growth Commission report specifically rejects austerity - and offers a clear path for how Scotland could be a successful small independent country, using economic powers to drive growth in the economy and invest in public services, and improve the lives of people across Scotland."