People cannot afford to wait until after the independence referendum for action to tackle inequality, Labour's deputy leader has said.
Anas Sarwar claimed the SNP Government in Edinburgh was focused on the constitutional ballot and only offered people "sticking plasters" for the problems they are facing.
Mr Sarwar told an audience in Glasgow at the moment "sadly the only change on offer is how you vote in the referendum ballot paper at the end of October next year, if that's when it is".
He said: "That's not the only change that should be on offer. People can't afford to wait. We still face huge challenges in our country. I don't think it's acceptable we ignore the inequalities that are happening today because the only change on offer is a constitutional one."
He said in Scotland "some have become trapped in the belief that change only means constitutional change". With this focus on next year's independence referendum, he said there were "constant battles about constitutional politics".
Instead, the Labour deputy argued: "We need to set out what kind of Scotland we want to live in, rather than constantly argue about what powers are where." He said there must be a vision for Scotland "that doesn't include the use of sticking plasters until after the independence referendum".
He highlighted health and education as two areas where he claimed the SNP was failing to deliver, raising problems with poor life expectancy and lower levels of educational achievement in the poorest parts of the country.
While Scotland has free personal care for the elderly, Mr Sarwar said: "50% of people in parts of my constituency won't even live long enough to get free personal care."
The SNP also abolished the graduate endowment, making university education free for Scots studying in their home country. But the Glasgow Central MP said that in 2011 only 2.5% of pupils from the most deprived areas got three As at Higher level.
While he said the SNP administration "use the language of social justice as building blocks for a referendum", he claimed the Nationalists failed to use the "principles of social justice to build a fairer Scotland now".
