Nicola Sturgeon will today urge Scots to vote for the SNP at next month's council elections "to send a message to Boris Johnson".
Voters go to the polls on May 5 to return councillors across the 32 local authorities in Scotland at a time of soaring inflation, rising fuel prices and a hike in National Insurance contributions.
Councils also face a £250 million spending gap next year which town hall bosses have warned will lead to cuts in services.
The chief executive of COSLA - which represents local authorities - earlier this year accused SNP ministers of showing a "lack of respect" to councils after years of cuts to their core budgets in real terms.
But the SNP leader will attempt to focus voters' minds on the cost of living crisis and to urge the UK Government to do more to help those least well off.
The First Minister will launch her party's campaign at a venue in Glasgow - a council area run by the SNP since 2017.
In a statement issued last night, Sturgeon said: "These elections come at a time when families are facing a Tory-made cost of living crisis, unlike anything most of us have seen in our lifetimes.
"People are struggling to pay for their shopping and are terrified to open their bills.
"The Scottish Government is already doing what we can to ease the burden on hard-pressed families and, if elected, SNP councillors will prioritise the cost of living crisis in Scotland’s council chambers - but we cannot let the Tories away with disgraceful inaction while households are forced into poverty."
She added: "Cast your vote for SNP councillors who’ll work tirelessly for local communities and local services.
"Cast a verdict on Tory policies that leave hundreds of thousands of Scots struggling with their daily lives.
"And cast your vote to send a message to Boris Johnson that Scotland has had enough of his incompetent, sleaze-ridden government."
Tory MSP Miles Briggs said: "This is the same tired old slogan that the SNP trot out at every election. Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP really have become a broken record.
"The First Minister has some front trying to pin the cost-of-living crisis on the UK Government, when the SNP have just received a record block grant from the Chancellor and enjoy huge powers over benefits which they choose not to use fully.
"Much of the cost-of-living crisis stems from soaring global energy prices, yet the SNP Government are opposed to further North Sea oil and gas extraction and the use of nuclear power, both of which would safeguard our energy security and limit price rises.
"I don’t know how Nicola Sturgeon can say with a straight face that people should vote SNP to protect local services when her government has presided over year after year of savage cuts to local authority funding."
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