Sturgeon told she should quit in fiery TV clash over decline in Scottish schools

By Scott Macnab

Nicola Sturgeon has been told she should quit over falling standards in Scotland’s schools as she faced a public grilling in a live TV debate last night.

The SNP leader was accused of putting her goals for Scottish independence ahead of public services which were branded “hopeless” in Scotland during a Question Time election special on the BBC last night.

The First Minister also ruled out any time limit being set for a third referendum on independence in the event that the SNP loses the

vote she plans to hold at the end of the Brexit talks. She was taken to task over recent international PISA figures which saw Scotland record its worst ever showing in reading, science and maths.

Audience member Andrew Couch said: “You’ve said that you want to be judged on education. On that basis shouldn’t you resign?”

He added: “On a number of measures the Scottish education system, which used to be regarded as the best in Britain, is now the worst.”

Ms Sturgeon insisted she is determined to reverse the slump. “My priority is to raise standards in our schools and close the attainment,” she said. “We’re working to do that through a range of different reforms and additional investment in our schools direct to head teachers to allow them to hire additional staff or whatever other resources they think is necessary.”

“When we come to contest the next Scottish Parliament elections, if I’m asking people to vote for me again as First Minister, I expect to be judged on that.”

Another audience member took Ms Sturgeon to task over public services.

He said: “With you Nicola Sturgeon, you’re very good at standing and speaking at your little podium at Bute House about independence. But when it actually comes to governing the country and tackling the big issues in Scotland like health inequalities, education, social care and those things, the SNP and yourself are hopeless at it.”

But Ms Sturgeon defended her record on public services, insisting that Scots don’t face the same fears as voters south of the Border over Tory proposals for the dementia tax. “In Scotland we support free personal and nursing care so that people have less burden on their personal assets when they need care,” she said, adding that Scotland’s NHS accident and emergency care is the “best performing” in the UK.