John Swinney praised the generosity of SNP members as he launched his party’s campaign battlebus, promising to be “out on the road with my bus for the remainder of the election campaign”.

The bright yellow coach bearing the slogan “a future made in Scotland”, and a decal of Mr Swinney, was unveiled to the media at Calton Hill in Edinburgh on Friday.

The SNP leader said it showed the party is running a well-funded campaign.

He told the PA news agency: “I’ve been listening to journalists telling me that we don’t have enough money for the election campaign.

“And we’ve just put a big spanking bus on the road for the last week of the election campaign, along with a host of other interventions to give us the final push we need for polling day.”

He continued: “I’m profoundly grateful to all the members who have supported us.

“We’ve got a lot of members, a lot of them have given us money to help us in our campaign. Small sums of money, £10, £20.

“All these donations are important and I’m really grateful for to people for doing exactly that.”

He said the election is “over and done with in England” but the race in Scotland is “hotly contested”.

Mr Swinney said: “The Labour Party are not confronting the fact there’s going to have to be massive spending cuts that they’ve signed up to, by the decisions they’ve taken to accept Tory fiscal policies.

“And there’s damage that has been done because of Brexit.

“If people in Scotland want to address these real issues, they’ve got to have a strong group of SNP MPs who will protect their interests and speak up for them in the House of Commons.”

He added: “We’re giving it our all in this election campaign.

“I’m going out on the road with my bus for the remainder of the election campaign to fight a high profile campaign as we have done.”

Mr Swinney was joined at the launch by Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, who said the SNP would hold Labour “to account and ensure they do not forget about Scotland”, seeking a better deal for public finances.