THE Conservatives are to seduce Scottish voters by offering them their share of £4 billion in tax cuts while reassuring them that they would not scrap the controversial Barnett formula.

The pledge means that if the party wins power, it would be willing to risk fuelling English resentment by keeping the Treasury mechanism that results in Scots receiving £1,000 per head more in public spending than voters in England.

The Tories say they will keep Gordon Brown’s plan to increase the block grant from Westminster to the Scottish Executive for the next three years, and have dropped plans for a review of public-sector efficiency in Scotland.

The party, whose campaign message to voters is “Are you thinking what we’re thinking”, faces the same problem as all the other parties except the Nationalists — fighting a general election on issues that are largely devolved to Holyrood. Four of its five main themes — education, health, council tax and law and order — are mainly or partly devolved and only one — immigration — is reserved to Westminster.

At the launch the Tories challenged Jack McConnell, the Labour First Minister, to cut council tax for pensioners, introduce more parental choice in education and end automatic early release from jail for criminals.

On health the party’s message is “Labour promised us shorter hospital queues, we’re still waiting”. On immigration: “It’s not racist to impose limits on immigration”.

Mr Duncan said the choice for voters was between “more waste, higher taxes and failing public service or value for money, lower taxes and genuine reform of public services”.

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