Fiona Hyslop axed as Education Secretary following series of setbacks

Published on Tuesday 1 December 2009 10:53

FIONA Hyslop lost her job as Education Secretary today after months of speculation about her future.

• Fiona Hyslop has had a torrid time in her role

She is to be replaced by Mike Russell, the culture minister.

The change was announced by First Minister Alex Salmond.

Mr Salmond said education needed a "fresh look".

Today's move follows a torrid time for Ms Hyslop, who has been under fire for months over class sizes, teacher numbers and the new curriculum.

Opposition parties have repeatedly called for her to be sacked.

Mr Russell, who is minister for culture and external affairs, replaces Ms Hyslop as Education Secretary.

She is demoted to take over the role Mr Russell is giving up.

Mr Salmond will take over responsibility for constitutional matters – which fell within Mr Russell's brief – early in the new year.

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The First Minister said: "Schools policy has reached a difficult period with our disagreement with many local authorities about their failure to reduce class sizes by sustaining teacher numbers, while we have achieved a new record low in primary school class sizes.

"It is appropriate that a fresh look is taken at this and other schooling issues to break the impasse for the benefit of parents, teachers and children.

"I believe that Michael Russell can bring new thinking to this tough task."

He said Ms Hyslop would do an "excellent job" in her new role, and would take responsibility for the joint ministerial committees and for liaison with the Westminster Government and with Europe.

Ms Hyslop will attend a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee (Europe) in London this afternoon.

The move came shortly before a meeting of parliamentary business managers at which the Liberal Democrats said they were planning to give notice of a no-confidence motion in Ms Hyslop.

And less than an hour before today's announcement, Labour leader Iain Gray had repeated demands for her sacking, saying Scotland's schools were in "crisis".

The Labour leader said: "Alex Salmond needs to concentrate on what's important to Scots and his first step should be to sack his Education Secretary and stop threatening councils in the ridiculous way he has."

Opposition attacks on Ms Hyslop reached a crescendo on Friday when figures showed the number of teachers had fallen by more than 1,300 last year.

She blamed councils for the "unacceptable" fall and threatened to strip them of responsibility for education.

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities hit back, claiming it would be economic "suicide" to take on more teachers at a time of falling school rolls, rising salaries and record demands on services for children.

Labour argued two ministers had been sacked – Ms Hyslop and Mr Russell.

The party said Mr Russell had launched the referendum Bill only yesterday, and had spent the weekend responding to disclosures of activities by a constituency aide.

Mark MacLachlan, 46, quit on Friday after it emerged that he had used an internet blog to make what Labour described as "vile smears" about the personal lives of members of other political parties.

Mr Russell described the actions of his former employee as "despicable" and "absolutely unacceptable", and said he had been let down by Mr MacLachlan.

Iain Gray said today: "Alex Salmond has listened to Labour and finally fired his hapless minister, but her removal actually poses new questions.

"He needs to ensure that the SNP starts to build schools and he needs to start recruiting teachers.

"Fiona Hyslop has finally paid the price for the SNP's failure in education and the schools crisis, but the buck stops with the First Minister."

He went on: "The day after Mike Russell launched the SNP's only remaining flagship policy, he has been removed.

"Yesterday's launch was a vacuous event and has turned into the St Andrew's Day hangover."