LABOUR has been challenged to pledge to scrap the so-called bedroom tax if it wins the next UK election.

The SNP has seized on the lack of a firm guarantee from UK Labour leader Ed Miliband to scrap the tax to call for a yes vote in the referendum next year.

Last week, First Minister Alex Salmond said the SNP would scrap the policy in the first year of independence.

Now the Labour mayor of Liverpool has told a Unison conference that Labour members want the bedroom tax scrapped and they want Labour to say it will do it.

Jamie Hepburn, SNP MSP for Cumbernauld, deputy convenor of the Welfare Reform Committee, said: "Voices within the Labour party are being ignored by the Labour leadership.

"Ed Miliband's glaring failure to match his words with any promise of action means it is clear that only a yes vote in next year's referendum can deliver the end of the bedroom tax.

The call comes as representatives from Citizens Advice Scotland give evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster of the impact of the bedroom tax.