Taxpayers to fund £500 grants for Scottish students... but the English get nothing

Scottish students are to get taxpayer funded grants unavailable to their English counterparts.

Every part-time student living in Scotland earning less than £18,000 will receive £500 - but those born in England will get nothing.

Last night a Tory MP condemned the move as yet another "kick in the teeth" to the English.

The grants are the latest example of how the Scottish receive exclusive benefits paid for by taxpayers across the UK.

Scots get free personal care for the elderly, quicker access to new NHS medicines and will soon get free prescriptions.

Earlier this week it was also revealed that Scottish police officers are to be paid more than those in England and Wales.

Scottish students pay no tuition fees, even if they attend a university in England, while English students must pay £3,000 - or £1,700 if they attend a Scottish college.

The £500 grants were announced by Scottish education secretary Fiona Hyslop yesterday alongside an extra £1million for "hardship funds".

"The announcement today is the next step towards moving away from loans to grants and £1,500 more is earned by Scottish teachers than their English counterparts will be a major boost for part-time students where fee costs can be a particular barrier," she said.

They will cost the ruling Scottish National Party - which wants independence - £13million a year.

Average fees for students on part-time degree courses in Scotland are around £800 a year.

The SNP can afford the grants because the controversial Barnett Formula, agreed in the 1970s, gives Scots an extra £1,500 a head in public spending.

But while English MPs have no say on what happens in Scotland, Scottish MPs can still vote on English matters.

Conservative MP Philip Davies said: "This is yet another kick in the teeth.

"I have no problem with the Scottish Government doing what they think is the right thing to do. I do have a problem with Scottish MPs trooping down to Westminster to make sure our students don't get the same benefits.

"And most of what they get in Scotland is being paid for with English taxpayers' money.

"The biggest threat to the United Kingdom doesn't come from Scotland because they're getting the money to pay for all this from England.

"The biggest threat will be from English people getting sick to the back teeth of subsidising Scottish benefits."