The favourite to be next Lib Dem leader was last night facing accusations she “smeared” Glasgow schoolchildren.
Jo Swinson came under fire from Education Secretary John Swinney over comments she made on Question Time on Thursday night.
The East Dunbartonshire MP said: “I represent a very middle class, affluent constituency and, in one of the towns, 80 per cent of young children go on to university.
“Five or six miles down the road in Glasgow Govan it’s four per cent.”
But Swinney accused Swinson of aiming an “appalling insult to the pupils and staff at at schools in the Govan area who are achieving so much”.
Glasgow City Council’s director of education, Maureen McKenna, said the most recent figures showed 13 per cent of pupils leaving Govan High School went on to university.
But the Lib Dems later pointed to other statistics from the most recent Scottish Index on Multiple Deprivation data, published in 2016, showing four per cent of 17 to 21-year-olds in Govan and Linthouse were entering higher education.
Other senior nationalists – including Nicola Sturgeon – also criticised Swinson. Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf – whose constituency includes Govan – said: “This is an outrageous smear and one for which you must immediately apologise”.
Last night Swinson said: “It is a fact that many more young people in Bearsden go to university than go from Govan.
“The Scottish Government’s own statistics bear that out.”
