Nicola Sturgeon has made an appeal to women to vote for the SNP to help stop the Tories increasing their majority.

The SNP leader said Tory austerity cuts had hit women hardest and said SNP MPs would fight against further cuts to household budgets.

Ms Sturgeon said if Theresa May gets even more MPs at has a bigger majority over Labour she will use it to purse even more damaging cuts to services and incomes.

She said: “Theresa May might be a woman, but her policies will do more harm to the lives of many women already struggling to get by. Any Tory MPs elected in Scotland will simply rubber stamp more Tory cuts.

“Women have paid the highest price for seven years of Tory austerity and failure with deep cuts to tax credits and incomes, a complete failure to address the gender pay gap and inequality at work, the introduction of abhorrent policies like the rape clause, and the disgraceful decision to deprive millions of women born in the 1950s of the pensions that they are rightly entitled to.”

She said SNP MPs will fight for equality and have already argued for stronger women’s rights.

She added: ““Advancing women’s equality is central to the SNP manifesto, and a strong team of SNP MPs at Westminster would champion gender equality, defending and extending women’s rights, protecting women’s incomes, and pressing for comprehensive action on gender-based violence in the UK and around the world.”

Ms Sturgeon said the SNP policies will defend women including ending the two child tax credit cap and the rape clause.

She said they will campaign for a fair deal for the Waspi women who lose out from changes in the state pension age.

She said SNP MPs will hold the UK government to a commitment to remove VAT from sanitary products and call for Scotland’s population share of the Tampon Tax Fund to be transferred to the Scottish Government.