Labour goes to bottom of the class after maths failure

Labour’s counting skills were found lacking as Nicola Sturgeon savaged the party for producing a “distortion of the reality” on the number of girls taking up science and maths highers.

Iain Gray, the party’s education spokesman, issued a press release at the weekend claiming fewer females were now signing up to key subjects in science and computing since 2007.

But the First Minister angrily pointed out that neglected to consider those pupils now taking up the new curriculum.

She told MSPs: “Labour then went to the media on the basis of that information and said that there was a fall in the number of girls studying those science subjects.

“That was flatly wrong; it was a distortion of the reality. Frankly, it was a disgrace.”

Mr Gray said: “Perhaps the First Minister and I can argue about the numbers another time.

“However, I think we agree that we need more women to choose science.”

A senior Labour source later admitted they had botched the numbers in the press release.

“We just got it wrong,” they said.