A DUNDEE nursery which denied a place to the daughter of the SNP’s Health Secretary has prompted a complaint to a watchdog over accusations of discrimination.

Humza Yousaf said that he and his wife have contacted the Care Inspectorate and are also seeking legal advice after claiming that the Little Scholars Nursery in Broughty Ferry had said that there was no place available for his two-year-old daughter Amal.

The Daily Record reported that Yousaf’s wife Nadia El-Nakla had emailed nursery bosses in May asking if there were any available places, but were turned down for a second time.

But they claimed that when a white friend asked  just two days later if there were spaces for her two-year-old son, the nursery told her places were available three afternoons a week.

The Health Secretary said that three white-Scottish applicants were offered tours of the nursery and spaces — often within 24 hours — while at the same time applicants with Muslim-sounding names were being rejected.

Mr Yousaf said: “We are fooling ourselves if we believe discrimination doesn’t exist in Scotland. I believe that the evidence we have proves our case beyond doubt.

“It doesn’t matter what my position is or how senior in government I may be, some will always see me, my wife and children by our ethnicity or religion first.”

Usha Fowdar, a spokesman for the nursery’s owners, said that they were “extremely proud of being open and inclusive to all,” insisting that claims to the contrary are “demonstrably false and an accusation that we would refute in the strongest possible terms.”

He told the Record: “We have regularly welcomed both children and staff from a range of different religious, cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds — including two Muslim families currently.”