Furious parents have written to Nicola Sturgeon attacking the SNP's "degrading" cap on university places for Scots after their children missed out despite getting straight As in their exams.

The letters and emails to Ms Sturgeon and John Swinney, sent last year and obtained by the Telegraph under the Freedom of Information Act, describe the system as an "absolute disgrace" and a "joke".

In one email to the First Minister, an aggrieved parent advised her to "stop thinking up ridiculous schemes like the baby box and the named person" and increase funded places for Scottish youngsters instead.

Raising the case of their straight-A son, who was rejected from Edinburgh University's medical school, they told Ms Sturgeon: "Stop making out to the electorate that SNP are securing our kids' futures when you certainly are not."

Another parent challenged Ms Sturgeon to explain why her daughter could not study English at St Andrews despite obtaining five A grades at Higher, and the course only requiring three.

A third described visiting an Edinburgh University open day and being told that only a small proportion of places on the courses her son was interested in studying were available for Scottish-domiciled youngsters.

She claimed Scottish universities were "filling up" with fee-paying applicants from south of the Border and warned "Scotland will pay for this", with bright youngsters being forced to go to England to get a degree.