The video will start in 8 Cancel

Our Politics newsletter is now daily. Join thousands of others and get the latest Scottish politics news sent straight to your inbox. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

SNP Education Secretary Angela Constance drove herself head-first into a car-crash interview without realising it was being broadcast live on BBC1 .

The Scottish Minister got a little tongue-tied during a grilling from the Beeb's Sunday Politics programme on the SNP stance on university tuition fees.

The MSP minced her words, saying "20,012" instead of "2012" and fumbled on before asking the show's host Gordon Brewer for another take.

"Sorry, are we able to do that again?", she asked. "I've just said 20,012."

Brewer replied: "Alright, 2012. Off you go...we are live by the way"

After an awkward moment, and a variety of pained facial expressions from Constance, she said: "Right...OK...forgive me, forgive me...I thought it was a pre-record."

The Education Secretary buckled under questioning over the SNP's policy on reducing grants for poor students, while maintaining free tuition fees for all.

The party has been criticised by the National Union of Students for the policy, which has seen the total non-refundable grants awarded plummeting by 38% since 2006.

Constance claimed the SNP had "put more money in the pockets of the poorest students" since 2012.

But the party has moved the focus away from non-repayable bursaries to student loans.

This resulted in poorer students racking up more debt than students from wealthy backgrounds.

Constance also evaded questions over new figures from Ucas, which suggest more people from low income backgrounds go to university in England than North of the border, despite tuition being free in Scotland.

poll loading Do the SNP perform better at TV interviews than Labour? 0+ VOTES SO FAR YES NO

She said: "It's actually very difficult to compare those figures..." before Brewer interrupted to point out she'd compared them herself a few moments earlier to make her own point.

He asked: "So we can compare them when you like the comparison, but we can't when you don't like the comparison?"

She said the comparison could not be drawn because the figures don't include students who entered University via further education in Scotland, but it does in England.

But she was unable to fully explain why that made the comparison impossible.

As the programme moved on to the following segment, Constance could still be faintly heard on an open microphone explaining that she "didn't know it was live."