Now SNP's £25m school bags giveaway branded a 'shameful election bribe'

By TOM GORDON, DEPUTY SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 21:08, 14 April 2026 | Updated: 21:09, 14 April 2026 The SNP has been slammed for offering voters £130 school bags in a pre-election ‘bribe’. The ‘goodie-bag gimmick’ could cost taxpayers more than £25million in the next parliament. John Swinney denied there was anything controversial about the scheme, which would see 50,000 state pupils per year given school bags to welcome them to Primary 1. The backpacks would include a PE kit voucher, water bottle, books and stationery, as well as advice for parents on education. The First Minister touted a prototype – in bright SNP yellow – on a visit to a nursery in West Lothian. He said the Welcome to School bags were a follow-up to the SNP’s baby box scheme, seen as virtue signalling by critics, which has cost £9million a year since 2017. Asked if it was a bribe, as the Tories claim, the SNP leader said: ‘No, no, no.’ The SNP also promised free laptops and bikes for pupils at the 2021 election then failed to meet the pledges. The row coincided with school pupils affected by Mr Swinney’s botched exam downgrade when he was education secretary during Covid telling him it was ‘gutting’ for him to boast about his record. In an open letter to the First Minister, the young people said the impact ‘knocked our confidence and our trust in the systems and the people who are meant to support us’. Scottish Conservative education spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘John Swinney’s latest goodie-bag gimmick is a shameful bribe that is straight out of the SNP’s election playbook.’ Former SNP MP Joanna Cherry, KC, added on X: ‘Don’t insult the intelligence of the electorate, it’s not a good look.’ Mr Swinney said the bags and contents would cost around £6.5million a year in total, equivalent to £130 each. Promoting the policy at Wonder Woods kindergarten in West Calder, he said it would be an ‘early priority’ for a fifth SNP government, but a detailed procurement process meant bags would not be ready until at least August 2027. Asked about the Tory charge it was a bribe, he said: ‘That’s absolutely hilarious. Because what differentiates any proposition of this type from any other commitment given [during] an election campaign?’ Lindsay Paterson, professor of education policy at Edinburgh University, told the Times the policy was ‘bizarre’. He said: ‘Like any untargeted policy, it essentially wastes public resources on people who could afford the bag and its contents anyway.’ Reform UK Scotland leader Lord Malcolm Offord said: ‘We are in a cost-of-living crisis and our rotten government believe the way to progress is to promise more unnecessary spending from the already strapped public purse.’ Scottish Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie added: ‘Scotland’s children deserve better than another implausible freebie from a party that just wants to secure a third decade in power.’ The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.