Proposals for new devolution to Scotland are "inadequate" and a "sorry attempt to appease Scottish national aspirations", an SNP MP has claimed.

John Nicolson, who won East Dunbartonshire from the Liberal Democrats, made his maiden speech in an opposition day debate on skills.

And he hit out at the Scotland Bill, which received its second reading on Monday night, for failing to reflect the realities of the SNP's sweeping gains on May 7.

Mr Nicolson said: "(It is) the latest in a long line of sorry attempts by Westminster to appease Scottish national aspirations.

"It is as inadequate as was its predecessors.

"Events north of the border have deep roots, little understood I suspect in this place. The SNP is engaging with proposals to improve them as we promised our electorate that we would.

"We on these benches have made it clear we want to see the findings of the Smith Commission delivered in full and then some. It is the only appropriate response to an unprecedented election which has seen Scotland return a national movement - 56 SNPs sent here with 50% of the popular vote.

"The Prime Minister promises he will listen, he promises he will respect Scotland and its government. We will see if he matches fine words with deeds."

Speaking from the SNP front bench at the beginning of the Labour-led debate, Mr Nicolson said: "Education has transformed the circumstances of my own family. Like all of her relatives, my grandma left school at 12 - in her case, to go into domestic service.

"She was forever self-conscious thereafter about her reading and writing skills.

"My mum left school at 14 because she had to go to work to support her family when her dad was killed in the Clydeside Blitz in a shipyard.

"From my earliest years I heard from both of them, and from my dad, about the importance of education. They didn't care what I studied - the only thing they cared about was that I should study.

"I went to university, the first generation of my family to do so, first at Glasgow and then with a scholarship to Harvard; privileges which would have been impossible dreams for my immediate forbearers."

He added: "Education and training is for me the mark of an improving, ever more civilised society. It's also of course the key to social mobility."