THE SNP Government's decision to increase the fees English students pay at Scottish universities was yesterday branded a politically motivated policy aimed at promoting independence.

Ian Murray, the Labour MP for Edinburgh South, told MPs during Commons business questions that the Nationalists had decided to “impose huge tuition fees on English students going to Scottish universities”.

He pointed out how previously the SNP had called such tuition fees “both discriminatory and anti-English” and had said the added cost of a four-year degree meant “we won’t see English students going to Scottish universities”.

Sir George Young, the Commons Leader, said: “It is a matter for the SNP Executive how they treat tuition fees. What he has just described is a consequence of devolution.”

Later, the Labour backbencher explained he had been referring to a newspaper article from August 2006 – before the SNP took power at Holyrood – which quoted it as denouncing the college fees as “discriminatory” and “anti-English”.

The Scottish Government proposal is that from next year Scots and other EU students continue to pay nothing while English, Welsh and Northern Irish students could face up to £36,000 for a course.