3 things to watch out for from Nicola Sturgeon tonight

The final TV debate tonight will be unique, for lack of a better word. Only one of the five people taking part is a candidate for Prime Minister. And in many ways that fact makes the Labour case for us. Of all the opposition parties competing in the General Election, it’s only Labour that can remove the Tories from power.

People can protest against the Tories in all sorts of ways by voting for the other parties on the platform tonight. But the only way to replace the Tories is to vote Labour.

Much has happened since the previous UK wide TV debate. A confident Ed Miliband, with the momentum firmly behind him, published Labour’s radical manifesto for changing Britain. And an increasingly desperate David Cameron made all manner of uncosted promises.

The biggest development, though, came in Scotland. During the two Scottish leaders TV debates Nicola Sturgeon was booed and heckled by a home audience for ducking and diving when it came to the issue of a second independence referendum. And the First Minister signed up to eye watering cuts worth an extra £7.6 billion for Scotland with her plan for full fiscal autonomy within the UK.

So here are three things in particular to watch out for tonight:

1. Cutting Scotland off from UK-wide taxes

In the second Scottish leaders debate, Jim Murphy managed to prize from Nicola Sturgeon what she has tried to hide from the Scottish people – that SNP MPs will vote to scrap the Barnett formula and cut Scotland off from UK-wide taxes and spending.

According to the impartial and independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), full fiscal autonomy – which means public spending in Scotland would come only from taxes raised in Scotland – would leave Scotland with an extra £7.6 billion black hole in our finances, over and above any deficit we have today. By any measure, that’s not great for Scotland.

Only yesterday Nicola Sturgeon claimed we could stop paying into the UK tax system but that English and Welsh taxes would continue to come to Scotland. It really would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.

Last week Nicola Sturgeon admitted the SNP would vote for full fiscal autonomy in the House of Commons. Will she confirm tonight that a fully costed policy on full fiscal autonomy within the UK will be in the SNP’s election manifesto when it’s published on Monday?

2. Referendum

Nicola Sturgeon has refused to rule out putting another independence referendum in the SNP’s 2016 manifesto. It’s for the people to decide when the next referendum will be, goes the First Minister’s argument. Yet the way for people to express that decision is when a party puts the policy in its manifesto.

The SNP leader claimed last week that she hadn’t given any thought to another referendum or the 2016 manifesto. The idea that Nicola Sturgeon, who joined the SNP at the age of 16, doesn’t wake up every single morning thinking about independence just isn’t credible.

There was a commitment in the SNP’s 2010 General Election manifesto, so it would be odd for there not to be one this time around.

So a simple yes or no will do tonight – will there be another referendum in the SNP’s 2015 or 2016 manifestos?

3. Education

In the last UK-wide TV debate Nicola Sturgeon made much of her support for free university tuition, something the first Scottish Labour Government under Donald Dewar introduced in 2000.

We should take the moral indignation with a pinch of salt, though, because what the First Minister failed to mention was that Scotland has the highest university drop-out rate in the UK and the lowest level of maintenance grants in a Western Europe, thanks to SNP cuts.

And let’s not forget the huge cuts that have taken place in Scotland’s colleges under the SNP. There are 140,000 fewer places at Scotland’s colleges compared to when the SNP took office back in 2007.

So when Nicola Sturgeon tries to give the impression tonight that her record on education in Scotland is something to be proud of, just look at the facts and the lived experience of the young Scots losing out because of decisions made by the SNP Government.

The First Minister is, without doubt, an able TV performer. When it comes to being honest about the impact of her policies, though, she isn’t quite as strong or forthcoming. Something those living in England and Wales should keep in mind when watching tonight.

​Margaret Curran is the Shadow Scottish Secretary and Labour’s Candidate in Glasgow East