A TORY peer has been confronted for making “wrong” claims about the Scottish education system in a TV debate.
Lord Jackson clashed with the new SNP MP for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry Lara Bird after he argued that “English taxpayers” paid for “young people’s life chances in Scotland.
During Politics Live on the BBC on Tuesday morning, Bird said: “The fact that we did that, scrapping tuition fees, means that young children in Scotland who might come from disadvantaged backgrounds have an access to education and are not going to be punished for that and that is good for the Scottish economy.”
The panel, which also included Bolton North East MP Kirith Entwhistle for Labour, were discussing the Treasury Committee’s findings that English student loans were effectively mis-sold by the UK Government.
Lord Jackson said: “I have to say: paid for by English taxpayers by the Barnett Formula.
“Kirith’s [Entwhistle] constituents in Bolton are paying for your young people’s life chances in Scotland, significantly more taxes and a direct capital transfer from English taxpayers to Scotland.
“So it’s all very well saying we’re doing a brilliant job in Scotland, you’re doing it because English taxpayers are paying the tax revenue.”
Bird hit back: “I have a really good solution for that: let us go, let us be independent.”
Lord Jackson, who served as a ministerial aide to former Brexit secretary David Davis, said Scotland “wouldn’t last a year”, adding: “In terms of defence, your currency, your debt you’d have to pay back, your public expenditure cuts.”
Bird replied: “You can’t have Westminster politicians in the UK, English politicians talking about how Scotland is doing it so wrong, so wrong in your words, when actually our results show something completely different. Our education system is putting young people in positive positions.
“We have at the moment, in the UK, increasing levels of young unemployment. The number of young people who are unemployed under the Labour government has gone up from 1.4m to 1.7m.”
Unemployment in Scotland is currently below the level in England, according to the latest statistics from the Scottish Government.
Between February and June this year, the unemployment rate in Scotland was 4.3% while the UK rate sat at 4.9%.
