THE SNP Scottish government has faced its first major defeat of the Swinney era as opposition parties united today to call for an end to education cuts.

As teachers, trade unionists and students in Glasgow prepared to rally in the SNP council leader Susan Aitken’s Langside ward to fight her administration’s decision to axe 172 teaching jobs this year and 450 over the next three, MSPs debated a Labour motion to intervene.

Education spokeswoman Pamela Duncan-Glancy called for the Scottish government to step in to halt the cuts across the country.