JOHN Swinney is a "weak" and “hapless” education secretary who urgently needs replaced, one of the Scottish Government’s former top advisers has said. 

Alex Bell said Mr Swinney, who has been in post six years, should have gone a long time ago and had only stayed because of the “politburo-like endurance of SNP ministers”.

He also claimed Mr Swinney was “beholden” to his cautious officials and the  government bureaucracy, yet was bizarrely regarded in the party as a potential successor to Nicola Sturgeon. 

Writing in The Courier about the growing criticism of the Government’s school return plans, Mr Bell said: “Yet again, Scotland is left looking at the education secretary and despairing. 

"A hapless man in a serious job.

“Where is John Swinney’s leadership, where is his vision – where for that matter is Oliver Hardy, as Swinney is surely our Stan Laurel.”

The Scottish Tories said it underscored the SNP's "shambolic" handling of the edcucational aspect of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Bell, who was a special adviser to Alex Salmond at the start of the SNP’s time in power, made his remarks as Nicola Sturgeon faces a parent backlash over the return of pupils.

Under the Scottish Government’s plans, pupils are due back at school from August 11, with physical distancing of 2m slashing the numbers possible in each class.

Mr Swinney said last week he hoped schools would be able to deliver half their teaching time face-to-face, with the rest done at home under the ‘blended learning’ model.

However within hours some councils, including Edinburgh, announced a 33% in-school plan.

Mr Swinney later said it was unlikely schools would return to normal before summer 2021.

That prompted Ms Sturgeon to over-rule him, insisting on Monday that 50% face-to-face teaching was a minimum, and warning councils to revise their plans accordingly. 

On Wednesday, the First Minister then downplayed blended learning - which had been the central planning assumption - as merely a “contingency”.

In his column for the Courier, Mr Bell accused the Government of dithering and failing children while schools across Europe returned after their Covid lockdowns.

He said SNP ministers appeared to be over-cautious about schools because they had been chastened by the wave of deaths in care homes on their watch.

He said: “Scotland looks set to punish its young for the policy mistakes it made before. 

“It’s too late for the care homes but that’s no reason to close schools.

“Yet again, Scotland is left looking at the education secretary and despairing.

“A hapless man in a serious job. But for the politburo-like endurance of SNP ministers, he should have been gone long ago. 

“Instead he reminds us that a nationalist government scared of independence but without opposition is part of Scotland’s problem, not its solution.”

He said that since the resignation of finance secretary Derek Mackasy in disgrace in February, Mr Swinney, who led the SNP to several election defeats from 2001 to 2004, was being dusted down as a potential heir to Ms Sturgeon.

“Remember, since Derek Mackay left under a cloud of scandal, the SNP leadership have looked to Swinney as the heir apparent to Sturgeon. Various media puffs and profiles point to honest John as the candidate being polished for office.

“That may account for Sturgeon’s anger on hearing of his blended learning approach. 

“She publicly slapped him down, saying part-time schooling would end as soon as possible.

How could a man with expectations to lead be so weak, so beholden to his cautious officials and the structures of unions and local government?

“In truth, the idea of Swinney as leader was always daft.

“For Scotland’s sake, this latest blunder must have damaged the wheeze beyond repair.”

Mr Bell concludes: “What Scotland needs is an education minister prepared to host the daily Covid-19 briefing to the public and able to set out the risks and realities. 

“Parents and pupils need to be engaged.  consensus needs to be built. We need a minister who can encourage the same kind of love and regard for teaching as enjoyed by the NHS.

“A politician who can inspire rainbows and clapping.

“John Swinney has been education minister for six years. Enough is enough. Someone take charge and give our children a chance.”

Since leaving the Scottish Government, Mr Bell has often been a pungent critic of the SNP.

After Mr Salmond was acquitted of 13 counts of sexual assault in March, Mr Bell, who was a defence witness at the trial, summed up his old boss as an insecure “creep”. 

He said: “When your best defence is ‘I’m sleazy but not criminal’, it’s nothing to smile about.”

Scottish Conservative education spokesman Jamie Greene said: “The SNP’s handling of education throughout this crisis has been shambolic.

“It knew since March that this problem was coming down the tracks, and several months on there’s still no plan which parents can rely on or trust.

“Parents and teachers are furious with the Scottish Government over this, and it’s no wonder John Swinney is now facing this level of criticism.

“We need to see some more creative thinking, yet all we get from the SNP is real poverty of ambition and imagination.

“It’s been a tough few months for everyone, but the SNP now risks turning this into an irreversible catastrophe for an entire generation.”

An SNP spokesman said: “There will always be people who snipe from the side lines. The Deputy First Minister is busy getting on with his job."