Tories claim a £1m benefit

They wanted the council to boost funds available for education.

They allege it would have meant an additional £22 per pupil, and was part of the proposed 2018/19 budget.

With the independent and Liberal Democrat joining forces with the minority SNP administration, theTory plans were scuppered.

Councillor Alex Allison leader of the opposition said: “We were determined to mitigate the government’s education failures. Our budget would have seen the council give more money to schools.

“If other parties had backed our plans there would now be an extra £1m for the area’s schools. Sadly they voted through an SNP budget that sounded good, but will achieve little.”

He explained: “The budget put forward by the council’s SNP administration, and ultimately passed with the help of the independents and Liberal Democrats, sought to grab headlines by announcing it would recruit more teachers.

“But schools are already struggling to recruit the teachers they need, with many posts sitting vacant for long periods of time. Creating more posts won’t help anyone when we can’t fill those we’ve already got.

“Our communities need an awful lot more than words. That’s why South Lanarkshire’s Conservative councillors want to give extra money to schools, so they can use it to actually make a difference for our children and young people.”