By Steve Bargeton, political editor

MINISTERS WERE under fire last night over their pre-election promise to put 1000 more police officers on the Scottish beat.

In the manifesto for the May elections the SNP pledged to employ an additional 1000 front-line officers.

But pressed by the opposition parties yesterday First Minister Alex Salmond would say only that his Government would deliver the “equivalent” of 1000 new officers.

Scottish Government spokesmen were unable to explain the difference between “police officers” and “equivalent police officers.”

Opposition parties claimed that the administration was backtracking on a key election pledge.

Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie, who raised the issue at First Minister’s questions, said, “We have 16,261 police officers in Scotland and the SNP pledged 1000 more. To everyone else, that makes a total of 17,261. Today the First Minister has confirmed this will not be happening.

“Both the First Minister’s responses included the new rhetoric —the equivalent of 1000 extra police officers on our streets. That is very different from his election pledge.

“The SNP’s election manifesto was explicit—1000 new and extra police officers, full stop; no ifs, no buts, no maybes.

“Now, they’ve backtracked, they’ve U-turned and, frankly, it is an absolute disgrace—a betrayal of the public, a betrayal of the police.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Nicol Stephen, who also raised the issue at First Minister’s questions, taunted the SNP, claiming their election promise had become “rebadging, renaming or reshuffling existing police.”

But First Minister Alex Salmond insisted that his government would deliver. He said some might see the term “equivalent” as a “weasel word,” but it had been used by the former Labour-Lib Dem Executive.

“The important thing for communities in Scotland is to have police deployed in the streets and communities—not in back office, not in bureaucracy where the Liberal Party left them.”

Last night MSPs voted 70-48 in favour of a Labour motion, amended in the name of Tory Murdo Fraser and Lib Dem Jeremy Purvis, which noted the SNP’s failure to implement a range of policies, including 1000 additional police officers, backtracking on a council tax freeze and failing to implement smaller class sizes.

It recognised that the SNP was elected on the basis of promises it failed to keep and called on ministers to make a statement on why its pre-election promises are no longer Government policy.

An amendment by Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon congratulating the new administration on its early action to deliver on a range of commitments was voted down by 70 votes to 47.

She described the opposition claims as the same “whining, baseless negativity” that lost Labour the election in the first place.

“This is a government that hit the ground running.

“What we’ve just heard is an opposition that hit the ground moaning and hasn’t stopped.”