Labour has accused the Scottish National Party of abandoning key manifesto pledges in order to freeze council taxes.

The party said the SNP was reneging on promises to recruit 1,000 new police officers, increase free nursery places and cut primary class sizes.

But the nationalist party plans to replace council tax with a local income tax, and is preparing to set out its first budget on Wednesday.

Claiming that the SNP planned to increase council budgets to less than £12bn by 2010, Labour predicted that local authorities would face a deficit of £40m.

Labour local government spokesman Andy Kerr said: "The SNP are prepared to drop all their manifesto pledges and cut local services just to try and bully councils into freezing council tax.

"Many people who voted SNP did so because of pledges such as extra police and smaller class sizes."

Kerr insisted that Labour was not opposed to freezing council tax, but stressed the move must be "fully funded" to avoid "savage" public service cuts.

Finance secretary John Swinney has confirmed that the government will publish a consultation on freezing council tax within the next few weeks.