Russell Findlay has declared war on the SNP’s ‘freebie culture’ with a 10-point plan to shrink the state and save hard-pressed taxpayers money.

In his first major set-piece speech as Scottish Tory leader, he took aim at the Nationalists’ Baby Box scheme and a host of other costly giveaways.

He said all options should be considered to make the country’s ‘bloated’ high-tax government leaner and fairer.

‘In terms of the freebie culture that the SNP have, nothing should be off the table,’ he said.

‘We’re trying to ensure best value for taxpayers – unapologetically.’

Warning Holyrood had lost touch with ‘mainstream Scotland’ after 25 years of left-wing rule, the West Scotland MSP said he planned to return it to the ‘sensible centre’ by offering common-sense and ‘justice and fairness’, not ‘posturing and preening student politics’.

Speaking to activists in Edinburgh, he suggested scrapping the 21p Scottish rate of income tax and expanding the 20p rate to take its place, saving 1.5million workers £100 a year.

He called for an end to some spending, singling out the Baby Box and free prescriptions for everyday pills that cost pennies, such as paracetamol.

He highlighted the SNP splashing £9million a year on pretend ‘foreign embassies’, despite international affairs being reserved to Westminster, and £12million on overseas educational aid as standards in Scottish schools plunged.

He condemned SNP-Green plans to spend £2m giving asylum seekers free bus travel while ditching universal winter fuel payments for pensioners.

And he called for a ‘complete overhaul’ of Scotland’s cluttered public sector landscape.

Councils could be restructured and empowered, health boards made less bureaucratic, and the list of 131 government quangos slashed through culls and mergers.

‘I don’t want to cut public services, I want to cut the cost of delivering services,’ he said.

‘The only solution Holyrood ever seems to come up with is to put more money in, as if that will fix the problem on its own – well, it hasn’t, and it won’t.

‘Tens of millions of pounds are waiting to be saved if only politicians in Edinburgh were more concerned about ensuring best value for taxpayers.

‘This should be our mission over the years ahead. Rebuild the broken bond of trust between politicians and the public by only promising what’s deliverable.

‘Rebuild trust by being ruthlessly efficient custodians of taxpayers’ money.

‘We need to show the people of Scotland that we are on their side. They work hard, they see public services getting worse and worse and their taxes going up year-on-year.’

Denying his party was ‘lurching to the right’ to woo back Reform UK voters, he went on: ‘Our concerns are perfectly normal around most kitchen tables.

‘Commentators criticise our supposed right-wing view that the Scottish government should fix Scotland’s schools before sending millions for education in Africa.

‘That’s not right wing, it’s simply right for parents and pupils in Scotland.

‘We’re also criticised because we don’t think asylum seekers should be given free bus travel – especially when pensioners are losing lifeline winter fuel payments.

‘To most families in Scotland, that view is right, not right wing. It’s common sense to mainstream Scotland.’

Nicola Sturgeon launched the Baby Box scheme in 2017 with a promise the £160 package of free goods for every newborn would ‘help child health’.

But despite costing more than £50 million to date, a recent Glasgow University medical study failed to find ‘any effect on infant and maternal hospital admissions, exclusive breastfeeding on the population level, or infant sleeping position’. The latter is linked to cot death.

Mr Findlay said: ‘Everything is up for discussion. Baby boxes might seem, in the grand scheme of things, like not a lot of money, but £50 million could do a lot of good in our public services, and I think we should look at that. I think we should look at everything.

‘Free prescriptions, for example. I think we’re all in agreement that 39p paracetamol should never be issued by prescription.

‘People in Scotland have had 25 years of different shades of socialism at Holyrood.

‘It’s all tax, tax, tax with little appetite for reform.

‘I think there’s a golden opportunity – a necessity, in fact – for our party to ask these tough questions and show the people of Scotland that there is a proper Conservative alternative.’

SNP MSP David Torrance said: ‘The leader may have changed yet Tories, alongside the Labour party, are still obsessed with austerity and cuts.’

Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie said: ‘These are the kind of damaging ideas we would expect from the Tory party that inflicted economic chaos on our country for 14 years.

‘While the SNP’s financial recklessness has burned a hole in public finances, the Tories’ answer is to slash the services millions of Scots rely on.’

Former Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie added: ‘It’s absolutely bizarre for Russell Findlay to deliver a speech about a lack of trust in politicians without acknowledging the central role that his own party has played in degrading politics.

‘Across the UK, Boris Johnson oversaw scandal after scandal and Liz Truss sent mortgage rates soaring while Conservative politicians like Russell Findlay cheered her on.’