THE SNP has blasted a senior Conservative minister after he said devolution would work better if the Tories were in charge.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the House of Commons, said this afternoon that "Devolution could work perfectly well if only the Conservatives were in charge in Scotland, which would make a triumphant success of it."

He also said the SNP Government has "failed on Scottish education, it has failed on Scottish health, it has failed on Scottish law and order; it is a shameful record in Scotland of the SNP. It has let the people of Scotland down."

He made the remarks during a discussion in the commons, when addressing Tommy Sheppard, SNP MP for Edinburgh East.

Now the party has hit back, with Keith Brown, its depute, saying he was "completely ignorant" about the situation in Scotland.

Mr Brown said:" Jacob Rees-Mogg's comments are completely ignorant of the facts of devolution. You just have to look at how the Tories are running England to see how things would go if they were in charge.

“Mr. Rees-Mogg should really take a look in a mirror before attacking Scottish devolution. His Tory government has introduced the bedroom tax, the rape clause and is selling out the NHS.

“He need only look at the polls published this week that the Scottish public trust the SNP to handle the economy, health and education.

“They wouldn’t nurture devolution, they’d scrap it. Only today (Thur) Rees-Mogg insisted the Tories will push ahead with their illegal UK Internal Market Bill which is the biggest power grab on the Scottish Parliament of the devolved era."

His comments come just weeks after Boris Johnson said devolution had been "a disaster" and the “biggest mistake” of former Prime Minister Tony Blair.