THE SNP has been branded “desperately out of touch”after deputy party leader Kate Forbes refused to support plans to axe tax breaks for private schools.

Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for the Economy came under fire during an appearance on BBC television’s Question Time, when she not only attacked Labour’s plans to extend and increase the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas giants, claiming that it would cost jobs, but defended VAT exemptions for private education providers that Labour plans to scrap.

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “Any claim that the SNP wants to end austerity has been left in tatters as Kate Forbes refuses to back Labour’s plans to boost funding for public services and cut bills for struggling Scots.

“Kate Forbes’s Tory tribute act shows how desperately out of touch the SNP is.

“Once again, the SNP has turned its back on the most vulnerable people in Scotland, siding instead with powerful corporations.

“It is incoherent and morally bankrupt to insist a nurse should pay more tax while defending tax breaks for private schools and energy giants.”