Johann Lamont accuses SNP of starving colleges of cash

THE SNP’s flagship policy of free university tuition is starving colleges of cash, Labour leader Johann Lamont claimed in the final First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood before Christmas.

The clash came after Ms Lamont had used a keynote speech earlier in the week to suggest that a return to tuition fees was “the most obvious option” to address current inequalities in colleges and universities.

Ms Lamont said: “The price that the First Minister denies of his education choices is cuts in college places and our schools with a growing gap between the rich and the poor.

“He knows that and perhaps in the New Year he might want to confront the reality of it.”

However, Mr Salmond insisted that Scotland’s tradition of free higher education should be “not just for Christmas but for all time”, as he attacked what he said was Labour’s shift away from, the policy.

She also criticised the SNP over some of the year’s events.