THE General Election on June 8 offers a clear choice for voters.

Under the SNP, households have been protected from the worst of the Tories obsession with austerity with more jobs, fairer pay, free prescriptions, education based on ability to learn and support for young people to stay in school, increased childcare and council tax bills that are lower by between £300 and £400 than bills in England.

In contrast the Tories at Westminster are already cutting £3 billion from Scotland's budget, taking child tax credits away from 50,000 low income families, cutting taxes for the richest, while imposing the bedroom tax and immoral rape clause, increasing the cost of education with higher fees for young people and continuing to refuse to fund personal care for the elderly or guarantee the pensions triple lock which will be a blow to thousands of pensioners locally.

Over the last four years, the SNP in Government has spent over £350 million mitigating against such inhumane Tory austerity cuts as the bedroom tax, and we are now fighting a similar battle over the rape clause. We cannot let the Tories off the hook and continue to use money earmarked for devolved public services to mitigate every bad Tory policy, while the Treasury pockets the money that should be in the pockets of hard working parents.

Scotland knows there has always been a price for voting Tory – but the price of voting Tory at this election has never been higher.

Week after week SNP MPs have consistently held Theresa May to account. It’s SNP MPs who have forced the Tories to back down on plans to cut billions from Scotland's budget that could devastate our public sector: to deliver the additional powers for the Scottish Parliament that people were promised, and forced a u-turn on tax credits.

And on June 8, every vote for the SNP is a vote for a strong voice for Scotland to stop the Tories having a free hand to do whatever they want.

Here in Clackmannanshire, the SNP won the local government elections with eight seats – the same as they did in 2012. However, the SNP does not hold a majority and are reluctant to enter into the same situation as before - as a minority administration where it became impossible to provide a stable and consistent governance due to the efforts of the Labour/Tory alliance.

I do know that in the interests in providing a stable administration, SNP council group leader, Les Sharp, has made several offers to Labour to enter into discussions to form a progressive partnership to work in the interests of Clackmannanshire.

As I write, these advances have been rejected which is disappointing and certainly not what local people want to hear.

I hope that Labour reconsider their position to provide Clackmannanshire Council employees with an assurance of no compulsory redundancies and the residents of Clackmannanshire with a united front against Tory austerity.