The businessman and philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter has called for failing teachers in Scotland to be sacked.

Sir Tom said that the "taboo" subject had to be tackled in a speech at the Scotland Office in London.

"If a teacher is not so good then they need to be moved out. Because our children's future depends on it," he said.

"It seems to be this taboo subject. 'Oh no we can't go there.' But we must go The Ayrshire-born businessman said that Scotland should also treat many of its teachers "like the heroes and heroines that they are".

Sir Tom, who founded high street chain Sports Division, also called for schools across to teach pupils a "can do" attitude.

"We have got to change our mindset," he said.

"We need to educate our young people in the skills of 'can do', the skills of confidence."

In his talk, entitled "Scotland's future: The 2nd enlightenment", he called for a combined approach that focused on what he described as 'scale up' companies - those growing by 20 per cent a year- and education.

"Let's build upon the good that is there (in Scotland's education) system to make it great, he said. "Let's learn from countries like Singapore".

He also quoted Larry Page, one of the co-founders of Google, who said that he had found too many people tended to assume that things were impossible rather than applying real world physics to discover what was actually possible. Sir Tom also also hit out at the "madness" of educating university students from outside the EU and then "kicking them out".

"Are we mad?", he asked an invited audience.

"This is the positive side of immigration. This is where people make a real contribution to our country and we are not allowing them to stay? I think we are mad."

He said he would be happy to talk about the issue with the Home Secretary Theresa May.