MARGARET Thatcher treated council leaders with more respect than the SNP, Patrick Harvie has suggested amid ongoing Budget tensions.

The Scottish Greens co-convener hit out at the lack of control handed to local authorities to set their own tax rates.

It comes as Finance Secretary Derek Mackay continues to seek support for his Budget plans, which were unveiled last year.

Mr Harvie’s party – who helped push through the last two SNP spending blueprints – are seen as the most likely to provide backing.

But during a meeting of Holyrood's Finance and Constitution Committee, the Green MSP issued a stark warning over council finances and accused the SNP of bullying.

Addressing Mr Mackay, he quoted one council leader who told him authorities must now consider the "unthinkable – stripping services right back to the absolute bare minimum".

He added: “I’ve spoken to people both in council leaderships and in the trade unions that represent council workers, who are telling me about whole council functions in danger of being shut down, about budgets like supply teaching which are in danger of being devastated.

“You know that that’s happening because those councils are speaking to you as well, don’t you?”

Mr Harvie later unfavourably compared the SNP’s approach to the policy adopted by Mrs Thatcher, who faced a rebellion in 1985 over powers restricting council spending.

Following a nine-year freeze, local authorities across Scotland are allowed to raise council tax bills by a maximum of 3 per cent.

But the Scottish Greens have called for an overhaul of local taxation, with greater powers handed to councils.

Mr Harvie said: “There’s a great deal about the UK Government’s policy and economic philosophy and so on that I profoundly disagree with.

“But they at least have the decency, when a tax is devolved, not to say, ‘We’ll cut your block grant to Scotland if you set tax rates that we disagree with’.

“They don’t put your arm up your back and say we’re going to constrain you in that way.

“You’ve talked about the extra resources that are available because Scotland is now able to set its own tax policy.

“Shouldn’t local council leaderships also have that ability to make fiscal choices at the local level that are right for their circumstances, rather than being constrained in the way that they currently are by your Government?

“At least when Thatcher did rate capping she had the decency to do it on a statutory basis, not by bullying.”

Mr Mackay said the Green MSP knew “fine well” that his analysis was inaccurate.

He added: “I understand that at the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, people voted for our council tax proposition, because that’s ultimately what we’re discussing here.

“They voted to cap council tax at 3%, and that’s the position of the Scottish Government.

“That’s not a surprise and I think it’s a great relief to many households that that is the position in these difficult times.

“It’s hardly underhand when we put it in our manifesto and we were elected on that basis.”

The Finance Secretary said councils will receive a real terms funding increase under his proposals, and insisted any opposition members wishing to provide extra cash should outline how this could be achieved.

He said: “I have tried to give local government the best possible settlement in the circumstances, with the ongoing austerity from the UK Government.”

Scottish Tory MSP Murdo Fraser joked: “I never thought I’d hear the day that Patrick Harvie delivered a complement to Margaret Thatcher.”

Elsewhere, Mr Mackay dismissed suggestions from a Tory MSP that he will be remembered as the man who bankrupted Scotland, describing the claim as "absolute total nonsense".