SCOTTISH First Minister Nicola Sturgeon put the cat among the pigeons yesterday, declaring austerity wrong and saying its end was the price of backing Labour in a minority government.

In a speech in London the Scottish National Party leader said Chancellor George Osborne’s economic policy had “failed even on its own terms.”

Its mistakes had cost every single person in the UK £2,500 in rising national debt, she said, adding: “And now, when the evidence tells us that austerity hasn’t worked, the UK government is now telling us is that we need even more of it.”