SNP pledges to cap bread and milk prices if it wins Scotland’s parliamentary elections

John Swinney unveils his party’s manifesto, saying cost of living is the ‘defining issue’ for voters on 7 May The SNP will cap supermarket prices for essential goods such as bread and milk if it retains power, John Swinney has pledged, after describing the cost of living as “the defining issue of this election”. With polls pointing to a fifth Holyrood term for the Scottish National party, its leader said he would use devolved public health powers to fix prices on 20 to 50 items such as bread, milk, cheese, eggs, rice and chicken because their rising cost was “impacting our nation’s nutrition”. The eye-catching pledge, made at the launch of the SNP manifesto for the Scottish parliament election, was immediately dismissed as a “potty gimmick” by retailers. It could also put the party on a collision course with the UK government because it may breach the Scotland Act of 1998 that created a devolved parliament. Ewan MacDonald-Russell, deputy head of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said supermarkets already paid significantly higher rates in Scotland, £162m more over the next three years than in England. He added: “Rather than recreating 1970s-style price controls