By Steve Bargeton, political editor

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT UK leader Charles Kennedy yesterday trumpeted the achievements of his colleagues in government in Scotland, claiming his was the party of “added value.”

Addressing the party faithful on the first day of their spring conference at the Dewar Centre in Perth, he claimed credit for a string of policies brought in since the Scottish Liberal Democrats went into coalition with Labour in the Executive.

Looking ahead to the coming general election he warned the party not to let Labour steal the credit for free personal care, scrapping tuition fees and other policies.

“Don’t let the Labour Party go out at this election and claim credit for these policies,” he said. “The difference between what Labour has done in London and what the Executive had achieved north of the Border is down to the Liberal Democrats.

“We are added value in the policies of our country.”

Mr Kennedy’s words will strike a chord with many Liberal Democrats. One senior MSP yesterday went as far as to say that the party should not enter into a third partnership with Labour after the 2007 Holyrood elections.

Donald Gorrie has said that the Liberal Democrats are too comfortable in Labour’s shadow and argues that not only should the party be cleverer about managing its image but it should be more prepared to “rock the boat” over Executive policy.

But Scottish leader Jim Wallace said he was confident his party was maintaining its identity in voters’ eyes.

Noting that the party had performed well in the UK, Scottish and European elections since it joined the coalition, Mr Wallace said, “There is no evidence that there has been an electoral problem of people failing to recognise what Liberal Democrats stand for. Going into this UK general election this year I am very upbeat and I am sure that we will find at Perth that the party is very upbeat. We believe that we can come out of this election with more seats.”

In his speech Charles Kennedy pledged that a Liberal Democrat government would guarantee mothers £170 a week for the first six months after the birth of their first child.

Pensioners over the age of 75 would be given an additional £100 a month and pension entitlement would be based solely on residency and not national insurance contributions, which penalised mothers who stopped work to bring up their children. He also said how he would pay for much of this—by increasing income tax from 40% to 50% in the pound over £100,000.

This, he said, would raise an additional £5 billion a year.

On Iraq Mr Kennedy signalled his intention to pull out British troops, calling for a “timetable for phased withdrawal.”

He attacked Labour’s record in government as “authoritarian” and he claimed that nationally, politics was now genuinely a three-party system.

He said that whenever the UK Government is presented with a problem “their instinctive reaction is an authoritarian reaction.”

Mr Kennedy received a standing ovation for a speech that effectively signals the start of the Liberal Democratic general election campaign north of the Border.