SNP manifesto plan may mean students miss out

POLITICS: Fear middle class will lose places under vow to widen university access

Middle class students with straight As could be refused a university place in favour of youngsters from poorer areas with worse grades, Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday.

The SNP manifesto put the party on a collision course with institutions already reeling from a recent round of funding cuts by forcing target numbers on them in a bid to widen access to higher education. The First Minister said: “Young people getting, perhaps, four or five Bs in their exams from a deprived background might be equivalent to a person from a wealthier background getting all As.”

St Andrews University demanded Ms Sturgeon be “entirely open and honest” about the implications of her manifesto policy.

Education

Double free childcare to 30 hours a week for three and four-year-olds and vulnerable two-year-olds.

Extra £750 million to boost attainment for poor children and “substantially eliminate it within a decade”.

Standardised testing for P1, 4 and 7 and in S3.

Early years children from deprived communities to each have support from teacher or childcare graduate by 2018.

Health

Increase NHS revenue budget by £500m above inflation by 2021.

Build five new elective treatment centres in cities, including Dundee, to cope with ageing population.

Set up “major trauma network” for seriously injured patients through sites in Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Shifting balance of funding to mental health services with £150m investment over five years.

Economy

No change in income tax rates, but a commitment to raise personal allowance and not to implement George Osborne’s tax cut.

Extend small business scheme to take total number of firms exempt from business rates to 100,000.

£63.8m cash injection to complete Dundee’s waterfront project.

Air Passenger Duty to be cut by half by end of the Parliament.

Environment

A ban on fracking or underground coal gasification unless it is proved not to harm the environment, communities and health.

Infrastructure

Examine the case for reopening the Stirling-Alloa to Dunfermline railway line in Fife.

Invest in redeveloped station hubs at Perth, Aberdeen, Inverness, Stirling and Motherwell.

Completing redevelopment of Dundee train station.

Welfare Justice Constitution

Introduce Social Security Agency and denouncing “scrounger” labels for claimants. Create new specific crime of domestic abuse. Call for independence referendum only when most Scots back it and/or material change such as Brexit.