NICOLA Sturgeon will today urge voters to turn the local elections into a referendum on Boris Johnson and his record as she starts a 21-day countrywide “cost-of-living” tour.

As 900,000 postal ballot papers drop through letterboxes, the SNP leader will visit nine of Scotland’s 32 councils over the Easter holiday weekend, starting in Dundee.

The coach tour will focus on “sending a message” to Mr Johnson about doing more to help ease the squeeze on household budgets as inflation heads for 10 per cent.

The SNP said it intended to campaign for votes “day and night” until polling on May 5.

Ms Sturgeon also said people should use their vote to cast a verdict on the Tories over the partygate scandal which saw Mr Johnson and Rishi Sunak fined this week for breaking lockdown rules in Downing Street.

However the First Minister failed to mention any specific council policies or powers, saying merely that SNP councillors would “help ease the cost of living squeeze - supporting those on the lowest incomes and tackling fuel poverty”, but without saying how.

The Tories said the omission was “extremely telling” and showed the SNP didn’t want to confront their own record of cutting council budgets in real terms.

Ms Sturgeon said SNP politicians would put the cost of living crisis front and centre , while Tory politicians were distracted by lawbreaking in Whitehall.

Sshe said: “In the midst of an unprecedented cost of living crisis, the May 5th election was already shaping up to be important - but after an extraordinary week people across Scotland will have the opportunity to cast their verdict on the law-breaking Prime Minister and Chancellor, and the shameful attempts by leading Tories to defend them

“With less than three weeks until Scotland goes to the polls, the SNP are out campaigning for every vote - in every community across Scotland.

“We are using every power at our disposal to help families in tough times, and the top priority of every SNP councillor elected will be to help ease the cost of living squeeze – supporting those on the lowest incomes and tackling fuel poverty.

“But our action stands in stark contrast to the inaction from the Westminster government - and that's why this election is so important.

“We need to come together as a country and send a message that the callous indifference on rising energy and food bills from Westminster will not be tolerated – and that it is untenable to have law-breakers occupying 10 and 11 Downing Street.

“Vote SNP on May 5th for action on the cost of living and to cast a verdict on these out-of-touch, law-breaking Tories.”

Tory MSP Miles Briggs said: “It’s extremely telling that in a local election campaign the SNP want to talk about anything except local issues. The reason for that is simple: years of savage cuts to local authority budgets by Nicola Sturgeon’s Government that have left council services on their knees.

"These brutal cuts have also forced local authorities to increase council tax rates, which is the last thing residents need in a global cost-of-living crisis.

“One of the main drivers of this squeeze on household incomes is rising energy prices – and yet the SNP oppose further North Sea oil and gas production as well as nuclear power, both of which are needed to protect jobs and Scotland’s energy security, as well as reduce our reliance on costly foreign imports.

“The SNP’s energy policy is a recipe for exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis.”

This weekend’s SNP tour is due to stop in Dundee, Perth & Kinross, Angus, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, Edinburgh, Midlothian, West Lothian and East Lothian.