THE Scottish government has been branded “snooty and elitist” after presiding over a 20 per cent real-terms cut in college funding over five years.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar made the remarks during a fractious First Minister’s Questions, just hours after Audit Scotland had published a report putting Scottish government funding for colleges this year at £656.2 million.

“This means that, between 2021-22 and 2025-26, funding for colleges has decreased by almost £20 million (3 per cent) in cash terms and by 20 per cent in real terms,” the finance watchdog concluded.

Audit Scotland found that, while the cuts had led to tens of thousands of college places being lost, the costs had largely been borne by staff through waves of voluntary severance and threats of compulsory redundancies, with 7 per cent of the total college workforce leaving in 2023-24 alone.

Challenging the First Minister, Mr Sarwar said: “A 20 per cent real-terms cut to colleges over the last five years, 30,000 fewer Scots getting places and a cash crisis putting jobs, institutions and places at risk.

“Can I ask John Swinney, when Scotland needs a new generation of skilled workers, why are apprenticeships and colleges of less value to the SNP than universities?”

Hitting back, Mr Swinney said that 25,000 people had started an apprenticeship last year and that teaching funding had risen by 2.6 per cent, adding: “Combined with the investment that the Scottish government is making in apprenticeships and also making in the college sector, we are investing in the skills of the future.”

Unconvinced, the Mr Sarwar retorted: “Colleges cut, courses scrapped, futures denied. So why does this snooty, elitist SNP government refuse to recognise the value of Scotland’s colleges?”

The SNP leader, however, turned the tables, angrily suggesting that it was not a “great look” for Mr Sarwar, who was privately educated at Hutchesons’ Grammar School in Glasgow, to attempt to lecture a “state school boy” such as himself on elitism.

He pointed out that “93 per cent of pupils are going to positive destinations after school and when it comes to big, lofty commitments, I stood beside Mr Sarwar, who told me there would be hundreds of millions of pounds to save Grangemouth and Grangemouth got absolutely nothing and is closed.

“Mr Sarwar should go home and think again.”