Row over SNP's education policy

Allan Wilson said the SNP's student loans figures were false

A political row has broken out over one of the SNP's flagship policies for next year's Holyrood election.

The party has pledged to abolish student loans and bring back grants, estimating this would cost £60m.

Briefing notes, collated by the civil service, said the vow would cost £150m. The notes were released by Scottish Executive minister Allan Wilson.

The SNP said Mr Wilson had breached the ministerial code and was using the civil service for political ends.

Earlier this year, the SNP announced it would abolish the graduate endowment fees, reintroduce grants and assume debt repayments for the student loans of Scottish resident graduates if it were in power at Holyrood.

The document released by Mr Wilson said it would cost £1.7bn to write off the debt altogether.

It's a complete and utter cynical con that the SNP are trying to perpetrate on students and their parents Allan Wilson Deputy Lifelong Learning Minister

Speaking on BBC Scotland's Politics Show, the SNP's deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon said the information was in the form of notes prepared in advance of a debate.

"Nevertheless, ministers would not use that information in a political way," she said.

"Allan Wilson has done that but the most important thing is that he has been dishonest in saying this somehow undermines the SNP policy.

"Nothing could be further from the truth."

Ms Sturgeon accused the Labour party and Mr Wilson, the deputy lifelong learning minister, of being "in a panic".

Average debt

"It's their policy that has saddled students with an average debt of £11,000," she said.

"The SNP has come up with a credible, costed, workable way of dealing with that."

Mr Wilson, also speaking on the Politics Show, responded by saying the SNP's figures were "completely fallacious".

"It's a complete and utter cynical con that the SNP are trying to perpetrate on students and their parents," he said.

He claimed he had given the figures he obtained to the SNP's Fiona Hyslop in August last year.