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The SNP government in Edinburgh is simply a preview of how David Cameron's Conservatives would rule the UK by running down essential services, the new leader of Scottish Labour is warning.

Iain Gray, in a speech to the Labour conference this morning, accuses Alex Salmond of having a strategy to help elect David Cameron and of cutting social services the way the Conservatives plan to do at Westminster.

"In the Scottish parliament the traditional fight has been between the SNP and Labour but when it comes down to values, it is the same as the fight between Labour and the Tories in the UK," Mr Gray will say.

"The cuts in services that Alex Salmond has made at local authority level in Scotland are the same as the Tories are proposing at Westminster."

Making his first major speech since being elected leader, Mr Gray will attempt to stay above the fray in the emerging political row over the HBOS crisis. Immediately after his conference appearance, he leaves Manchester for a cross-party meeting in Edinburgh which will present a united front to defend jobs and corporate business in Scotland.

However, he will present the Labour Party in Scotland as the first line of defence against cuts in education, social care and the voluntary sector which are a consequence of budget settlements under the SNP.

He claims that the cuts will, in the short term, leave social services relying on charities in Scotland just as proposed Tory cuts will leave have them in the hands of the voluntary sector.

"A reliance on altruism is not the way to run a country," Mr Gray will say.

Taking a swipe at the Liberal Democrat proposal for a 2p tax cut in the Scottish budget, which would cost an estimated £800m, Mr Gray will argue that in the Holyrood parliament only Labour remains committed to social justice.

"There is only one force for fairness in the Scottish parliament, it is Labour," says Mr Gray, echoing a Labour theme for Manchester.

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