Nicola Sturgeon in Twitter row with Scots Tories over exam results

The First Minister has been caught up in a social media spat over the deleting of a tweet by the Scottish Conservatives which criticised her government’s handling of the exam results fiasco.

Exams results north and south of the border have caused uproar.

The First Minister originally retweeted an erroneous statement by BBC journalist Lewis Goodall that Scots Tory MPs were deleting a tweet which had stated she had “presided over one of the worst scandals in devolution” after tens of thousands of pupils had their grades marked down last week – a move which was reversed on Tuesday after an outcry by young people and parents.

After it was "liked" by two thousand people, Ms Sturgeon tweeted a clarification, to say that it was the Scottish Conservative party itself that had deleted the original statement critical of the Scottish Government, a move she said which was “even more telling”.

However the Scottish Conservative Party hit back saying the original tweet had been deleted, not because of the issues around England's exam results today, which have also caused an outcry about unfair moderation, but because of a spelling error. In a tweet it said: “We deleted a tweet because of one mistaken letter. You took a week to correct the grades of 75,000 pupils." The party then restated it’s original critical tweet, with the correct spelling.

The Twitter spat came just hours before Ms Sturgeon’s Deputy First Minister and Education Secretary John Swinney is due to face a motion of no confidence in the Scottish Parliament. The motion, lodged by Scottish Labour, is being backed by the Scottish Conservatives, however is expected to fail after the Scottish Greens refused to support it, saying they were satisfied with the changes Mr Swinney has made to the exams results.

The SNP has also accused the Scots Tories of “rank hypocrisy” today over the fiasco of the exam results in England, with its Westminster education spokesperson, Carol Monaghan MP, saying: "As concerns over exam results were raised in Scotland, Douglas Ross and the Scottish Tories were quick off the mark to play petty party politics and demand resignations. Their deafening silence over the exam results published in England today - with almost 40 per cent of students having their exam results downgraded compared to 25 per cent in Scotland - reeks of rank hypocrisy."

She added: The Scottish Government listened to the concerns of students and teachers and took steps to ensure that candidates were not unfairly penalised through no fault of their own – with downgraded exam results scrapped and pupils receiving the grade the teacher awarded, and upgraded results retained. Now it’s the Tories' turn, and they are refusing to take action to help England’s young people, some of whom may be having their chance of coming to university in Scotland destroyed by the Tories' actions.

"This year's exam results faced unprecedented challenges and impacted students not just in Scotland, but right across the UK. However, rather than engaging constructively, the Scottish Tories chose to politicise the issue for their own ends. Their deafening silence over calls for resignations in Westminster is telling and reveals their true colours of putting politics ahead of people's livelihoods."

However, new Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross MP also weighed in, saying: “There has been some suggestion that similar issues with exam results in England to those in Scotland will somehow be difficult for me.

"As leader of the Scottish Conservatives, my job first and foremost is to get the best for young people and everyone in Scotland. But as I made clear earlier this week, I won’t support the UK Government on everything they do and I’ll challenge them where I believe they are wrong.”

He added: “I’m pleased that the UK Government have been more transparent and proactive on solutions than the Scottish Government. But as I said last week, word for word, ‘the futures of young people must be put first, ahead of these lofty arguments about the credibility of the system’.

“Pupils in Scotland or anywhere else in the UK should not be held back from getting on with training or university places that they’ve earned.”

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