John Swinney will on Monday say only the SNP will offer a left of centre manifesto as his party defend a challenge from Labour at the general election.

Speaking in Stornoway, the First Minister and SNP leader will argue that the document, expected to be unveiled on Wednesday, will set out an end to austerity and an alternative to the public services cuts which he says are planned by both Labour and the Conservatives.

Mr Swinney says his party's manifesto will include plans for investment in public services, protections for the NHS against privatisation, the reversal of "the damaging failure of Brexit" and support for families struggling through the cost of living crisis.

In recent weeks, the SNP have stepped up attacks on Labour - which polls suggest are the frontrunner in the race for Number Ten and ahead of the SNP in Scotland - and insisted that a UK government led by the party would lead to £18billion of cuts to public services.

READ MORE: Brian Cox fearful SNP 'backing away' from independence

Labour have rejected the claim with the party's leader north of the Border Anas Sarwar telling a BBC debate last week "read my lips, no austerity under Labour".

“Election campaigns generate a lot of noise," Mr Swinney will say.

“But they can usually be boiled down to quite a simple choice. This week is when the choice before the people of Scotland becomes clear. The SNP will publish our alternative to the Westminster status quo.

“A vision of hope for Scotland’s future, against the continuation of despair on offer from Labour and the Tories. Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak are wedded to the same Thatcherite economic policies – offering only cuts, austerity and stagnation.

READ MORE: Swinney: Independence will be page one, line one in SNP manifesto

“The bold and positive vision we will publish will stand in stark contrast to the dismal Labour and Tory offerings promising more of the same.

“We are the only major party in this election publishing a truly left of centre manifesto – and that is exactly why we are feeling so positive about this campaign. That centre-left political tradition is where the vast majority of people in Scotland sit.

“Our manifesto is one that takes the traditional left-of-centre politics of our country and applies it to the challenges we face now, in the modern world. Labour under Keir Starmer has run a mile from the founding values of his own party – and abandoned the majority of voters in Scotland in the process.

“In Scotland, there is a real choice. A choice between a generation of stagnation under the Westminster status quo – or a generation of opportunity with the SNP.”

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie hit back at Mr Swinney's attack on her party.

“John Swinney was the architect of austerity here in Scotland, downgraded the exam results of working class school children, and has spent this election campaign defending the profits of oil and gas giants - it takes a brass neck to try and claim that he is running a left wing campaign," she said.

“All the SNP has to offer is the same old division and decline, and the party’s increasingly desperate attacks on Labour show how bereft of ideas it is.

“While the SNP snipes from the sidelines, Labour is focused on setting out our ambitious plans to deliver the change Scotland needs - because this is not as good as it gets.

“Labour will cut bills, boost pay, strengthen workers’ rights, deliver climate leadership, boost funding for public services and end 14 years of Tory economic chaos."

Mr Swinney is campaigning on Monday in Na h-Eileanan an Iar, where candidate Susan Thomson is standing for the party.

Former Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil, who latterly sat as an independent MP having been expelled by the SNP, is also standing in the constituency, while former journalist Torcuil Crichton is Labour's candidate.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail on Monday, the Scottish Lib Dems are launching their manifesto while, Scottish Labour will unveil their battle bus in South Queensferry.

Speaking earlier on Sunday, Alex Cole-Hamilton, the Scottish Lib Dem leader, pledged a ‘big investment’ to ‘lift up education’

He said the country's education system was once “one of the best in the world” but that it was now “average”, and accused the SNP of delivering a “£200 stealth cut” for every child.

“Scotland’s education system used to be one of the best in the world but under the SNP it has slipped down the international rankings and it is now just average. Pupils don’t have the support they need and teachers are feeling disillusioned," he said.

“We will lift up Scottish education through our plan for more in-class support, getting teachers off zero-hours and short-term contracts, and a new nursery premium to give children from poorer backgrounds the very best start".

On Monday Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie will join MSP Ross Greer at the proposed site for a major holiday resort at Loch Lomond.

The Greens say the Flamingo Land theme park, which will include 104 woodland lodges, two hotels and a water park, is the most opposed development in Scottish history, with over 93,000 people placing objections, but supporters say it will bring jobs and boost the area's economy.

On the campaign trail on Sunday in Aberdeen North and Moray East, where Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross is standing after former candidate David Duguid was controversially deselected while in hospital, Mr Swinney said the row has left a “bad taste” in the constituency.

Mr Ross had previously said he would not be standing in the election and his change of mind provoked anger in his own party. He announced last week he would resign as party leader after the election.

Meanwhile, also campaigning in the north east, the Scottish Conservatives, who are hoping to keep the six seats they won in 2019, have accused the SNP of “betraying” the public in delaying the dualling of the A9 between Perth and Inverness, on the back of figures suggesting there are more injuries and deaths on un-dualled sections of the road than on dualled ones.

The Transport Scotland statistics indicate that from 2020-2023 inclusive, there were 199 injuries and 15 deaths on single-carriage sections of the road, compared to 114 and seven respectively for dualled sections.

The SNP originally pledged to fully dual the A9 between Perth and Inverness by 2025, but last year this was pushed back to 2035, something the Scottish Conservatives said indicated their “contempt” for rural Scotland.