NICOLA Sturgeon has said Scotland is a “world class nation” and the best country “to be born, grow up and grow old in”.

The First Minister laid out her belief in her first session of First Minister’s Questions after delivering her Programme for Government to Holyrood on Tuesday.

The programme contained 16 bills on a wide range of policies, including on the economy, on the environment, on education and on how to tackle poverty.

It also hinted at the prospect of an income tax rise to raise money for public services, which was seized on by Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson who claimed such a move would “damage the economy”.

But setting our her reasons for the possibility of a tax shake-up, the First Minister said: “What is damaging the reputation of this country right now is the isolationist, inward-looking Brexit approach of the Tories and things such as the leaked Home Office proposals showing how the Tories want to punish people who come from other countries and to introduce measures that would be devastating for our economy.”

And she added: “The message that I want to send about Scotland – and I want to send it to people here at home, elsewhere in the UK and internationally – is that it is the best place in the world to grow up and be educated in; it is the best place in the world to be cared for if someone is sick, vulnerable or in need; it is the best place in the world to grow old in; and because of our investment in infrastructure, in digital and in business support, it is the best place in the world to invest and do business in.

“That is the message that I want to send the world about Scotland, and we all need to make sure that we do what is necessary to deliver that kind of world-class nation.”

Labour and the Liberal Democrats have been calling for tax rises to generate more cash for public services since Holyrood was given power over income tax rates and bands in Scotland in April this year.

Sturgeon’s Scottish Government rejected the opposition parties’ calls to increase income tax for the highest earners to 50p in this year’s budget, as she stressed ministers “consistently take a very responsible approach to taxation”.

But she appeared to indicate payments may need to rise to fund services such as schools and hospitals – as well as to provide better pay for public sector workers.

The First Minister confirmed earlier this week the one per cent pay cap that has been in place will be lifted in Scotland.

She said: “We have a responsibility to everybody in our country to make sure, as we go into the next decade and beyond, we are protecting the public services all of us depend on; that we are ensuring our nurses, our doctors, our police officers, our teachers, our firefighters are well rewarded [and] that is why I have said we are going to lift the one per cent public sector pay cap.”

Sturgeon continued: “It’s vital we make sure the support our businesses need – whether that’s the additional investment in research and development I have announced in the last few days, or the transport and digital infrastructure that our businesses need to thrive – is there as well.

“As a parliament, as a country, let’s have that mature and honest debate.”

Labour, the LibDems and the Scottish Greens have welcomed the prospect of discussion on tax changes.

Scottish Labour’s interim leader Alex Rowley said: “Labour has been calling for and will very much welcome a debate on how we invest in Scotland’s future, because we cannot continue with failed Tory austerity.”

However, he pressed the First Minister on NHS statistics released this week which he said show “our hospitals do not have enough doctors, nurses and midwives” and that “hundreds of operations are being cancelled because hospitals cannot cope”.

Welcoming Rowley to his new position as interim leader, Sturgeon responded: “First, on the number of people working in our national health service, there are almost 12,000 more in it today than was the case when this Government took office.”