Jack McConnell attacked the SNP's tax plans

The SNP said Labour had lost the public's trust, but Jack McConnell said the Nationalists' plans for independence would not win them power.

The Tories claimed the "failure" of the Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition was behind increasing SNP support.

The heated exchanges came during the final First Minister's Question Time of the current parliament.

SNP deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon taunted Mr McConnell over what she claimed was a string of broken promises, while Mr McConnell accused his opponent of distortion.

And he claimed the Nationalists' independence wish was "the policy that dare not be named".

The people of Scotland are desperate to make devolution work better Annabel Goldie MSP Scottish Conservative leader

On council tax Ms Sturgeon said: "Four years ago he promised to make it fairer but today it is up 60%, and is as deeply unfair as ever.

"The first minister broke that promise and people across Scotland are paying the price," she said, as she challenged Mr McConnell to disclose Labour's proposals for making the tax fairer.

The first minister replied: "People don't trust you when you tell untruths."

He accused Ms Sturgeon of conflating high council tax increases in the final years of the Tory government with lower increases in subsequent Labour years.

Nicola Sturgeon said Labour had lost public trust

Mr McConnell went on to attack SNP plans for a local income tax of 3p to replace the council tax, making Scotland "the highest-tax part of the UK", he argued.

The effect of this would be combined with a �1bn cut in local services, he claimed.

Tory leader Annabel Goldie hit out at the performance of the Scottish Executive and claimed attacks on the SNP "using the language of the apocalypse" only played into the hands of the Nationalists.

She said: "The people of Scotland are so fed up with their failure that the people of Scotland are desperate to make devolution work better."

Mr McConnell insisted that, after the first eight years of Holyrood, 200,000 more people were now in work, violent crime had fallen and children were performing better in school.