THE former head of Boris Johnson's "Union Unit" has called on Liz Truss to intervene in the Scottish education system and use it to "fortify the foundations" of the Union.
In a bizarre intervention after her premiership was confirmed, Luke Graham, the former member for Ochil and South Perthshire (now John Nicolson, SNP), urged Truss to use Scottish schools and universities to actively promote the Union.
As education is a devolved policy area, Graham, who ran Downing Street's Union Unit for three years after losing his seat, claimed the curriculum had been "weaponised".
Graham, in a joint opinion piece in The Times with Ed McGuinness, London-based chairman of Islington Conservatives, also claimed that Scots getting free university tuition encourages students to remain in the country and "not expand their cultural and educational horizons".
The SNP blasted the "brazen attack on devolution" and said the plans had "more than a whiff of tyranny".
In the Times, Graham said: "We ought to reflect on the nature of what education means to our future as a country; it could yet be our most powerful tool to fortify the foundations of our United Kingdom."
Graham lamented that the Scottish Government abolished tuition fees north of the Border. The average debt incurred by a student studying in England for a four-year degree course is £45,800, according to the House of Commons library.
Graham wrote: "The English, Welsh and Northern Irish have to pay wherever they study and Scots have to pay if they stray south of the border.
"This encourages Scots to remain and not expand their cultural and educational horizons.
"Moreover it creates a further education system whereby there is an artificial cap placed on Scottish students in Scotland, forcing them to potentially abandon their plans to study.
"Either way, the problem is driving a wedge between the four nations of the UK."
Graham's bid to fix this issue is by the new PM holding "the devolved governments to account" – by installing pro-Union propaganda in the curriculum and offering tuition support grants for students who decided to study outside of Scotland.
"With private sector support for those who choose to study Stem or other niche subjects," he added.
Carol Monaghan, SNP MP for Glasgow North West and the party's Westminster education spokesperson, blasted the bid for political interference in Scottish education.
She said: “It’s incumbent on Liz Truss and her new government to immediately rule out these deeply sinister proposals that present a brazen direct attack on devolution, on the impartiality of our educational institutions and on freedom of expression that would reduce them to puppet organisations of the Westminster Tory government.
"This is not only a clear attack on Scotland’s devolved responsibilities but on the principle that education and learning must be free of political interference – and if the Tories think they can get away with that they can think again.
"If the Tories want to look at changes to education and university policy they should look to Scotland, where the SNP Scottish Government abolished tuition fees, protecting students from the £9000-a-year fees faced by students in England and Wales.
“Following their attacks on broadcaster impartiality, their attempts to gerrymander elections, and their willingness to break international law, there is more than a whiff of tyranny about these latest Tory plans.
"This is yet further proof that the only way to escape damaging Westminster control is with the full powers of independence.”
Professor Christopher Chapman, the University of Glasgow's chair of education policy, was unimpressed by the proposals.
He said: “Debates about ... nationalism or strengthening the Union miss the point.
“Universities exist as a global enterprise and serve a global community to push at the boundaries of knowledge and to enhance the economic and social quality of societies around the world whether it be in Armenia or Argentina.”
An insider told The Times that the plans were not "remotely realistic".
