NICOLA STURGEON was accused of a “shameful” betrayal today, after it emerged that student debt in Scotland had soared by a whopping 167 per cent in spite of an SNP pledge to scrap it.

New figures show that the student loanbook balance north of the border at the end of the 2017-18 financial year was £4.98 billion.

At the start of the 2007-08 financial year, around the time the SNP replaced Labour as Scotland’s leading party, it was £1.85bn.