Independent analysis reveals cuts of over £400 million to education spending in Scotland since 2010, Scottish Labour said today.

The research, commissioned by Labour and conducted by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, shows that local authority education spending fell from £5.3 billion in 2009-10 to £4.9 billion in 2017-18 - a drop of 7.5 per cent. The government, however, said that the latest official figures show a real-terms increase in education spending.

Labour said that the £4.9 billion figure for 2017-18 included the government’s Pupil Equity Funding, which is supposed to inspire new ways of closing the attainment gap between rich and poor rather than compensate for cuts to existing services and resources.

The party added that its figures showed that Tory austerity had “hammered” schools. It accused the SNP government of failing to protect key public services from austerity.

Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said: “Protecting education spending should have been a priority for the SNP when the Tories came to power [at Westminster in 2010] - instead there has been more than £400 million worth of cuts since 2010.”

‘Soaring class sizes and overworked teachers’

“No wonder we are seeing soaring class sizes, overworked teachers and a stubborn attainment gap between the richest and poorest pupils.”

He added that Labour would make “the richest pay their fair share so we can invest in our schools and deliver a better deal for teachers, parents and pupils”.

A Scottish government spokesman said: “We are committing £750 million during the course of this Parliament to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap and ensure that every child in Scotland has an equal chance to succeed - including another £120 million in Pupil Equity Funding direct to schools this year.”

He added that local authorities are responsible for setting school budgets and that the most recent annual national statistics show that their spending on education rose from £4.95 billion in 2015-16 to £5.07 billion in 2016-17, a real-terms increase of 0.3 per cent.

He also said that councils could choose to use their powers to increase council tax by up to 3 per cent, and that the government was managing Scotland’s finances prudently despite Westminster austerity measures and concerns around the potential impact of Brexit.