THE Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) has launched its Holyrood manifesto, pledging mass council housebuilding and free public transport.

The party’s Socialist Action Plan called for a “no-cuts defiance budget” at Holyrood to prevent the tens of thousands of job losses planned over the coming term alongside a mass campaign to boost UK government funding.

Key pledges include building 100,000 eco-friendly homes for rent, a National Care Service, a £15-an-hour minimum wage across the public sector and its private contractors, scrapping both the council tax and private finance initiatives (PFIs), and publicly owned and universally free bus, rail and tram travel.

Launching the manifesto, SSP election campaign organiser Richie Venton said: “It presents our vision of an independent, nuclear-free, poverty-free, pollution-free Scottish socialist republic, harnessing the nation’s wealth for its people, a force for peace and international cooperation, not endless imperialist wars.

“We refuse to sit back passively as the cost-of-living crisis, climate catastrophe and wars blight the lives of the Scottish working class.

“We want action, inside and outside Holyrood, where necessary bursting asunder the straitjacket of devolution, championing measures that would transform the daily lives of millions.”