John Swinney was yesterday forced to defend Nicola Sturgeon’s record as he was accused of continuing her ‘toxic legacy of failure and division’.

The First Minister said he was ‘proud’ to have served in her government for eight years and attacked her critics for not being ‘graceful’ about her exit from frontline politics.

But he was branded ‘yesterday’s man standing by yesterday’s women’ after he gave unfailing support to his former boss despite a litany of charges against her.

Ms Sturgeon announced this week that she would stand down at next year’s election after 27 years as a Glasgow MSP.

At a rowdy First Minister’s Questions, Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay instantly angered Mr Swinney by asking him to name Ms Sturgeon’s biggest failure in office.

Mr Swinney said Ms Sturgeon had given ‘very strong leadership to Scotland’ and made it ‘a better country than we have been in the past’.

He said other party leaders had shown ‘a gracefulness’ in their remarks about her moving on, and complained ‘that graceful tone has been jeopardised by Russell Findlay’.

Mr Findlay said the FM could have chosen from ‘a vast back catalogue of failures’ by Ms Sturgeon that had undermined public trust in politics and the parliament.

He said: “ll start with Scotland’s once world-leading education system. A system now more interested in teaching pupils about feelings and pronouns than literacy and numeracy.

‘She is responsible for plummeting league table placements for Scotland and she’s responsible for failing Scotland’s poorest pupils.’

Ms Sturgeon admitted she had failed in her mission to close the attainment gap between rich and poor pupils – Mr Findlay said it was still ‘as wide as the Clyde’.

Mr Swinney said he was ‘proud’ to have been Ms Sturgeon’s education secretary and there had been a 44 per cent rise in children from poor backgrounds going to university under the SNP.

Mr Findlay accused him of being ‘proud of failure’, as on ‘any honest assessment, Ms Sturgeon ‘has failed Scotland’.

He said: ‘If there’s a single word that defines Nicola Sturgeon and her politics it is “division”.

‘Nicola Sturgeon divided our country, betrayed women, broke her promises to pupils, launched a ferry with painted-on windows, raised taxes, alienated business, and allowed drug deaths to spiral to the worst in Europe.

‘Even on her life’s mission, she failed. Nicola Sturgeon tried to break up our great country. But we, the Scottish Conservatives, stopped her.’

Ms Findlay said Ms Sturgeon’s ‘fixation’ on gender reform had proved as divisive as her Nationalism and accused the first female FM of having ‘trampled on women’s rights’.

He said: ‘She couldn’t even bring herself to admit that a double rapist was a man.

‘For years, the SNP government was distracted by the fringe obsession of gender.

‘Nicola Sturgeon focused on they/them, instead of improving public services for everyone.

‘Now that Nicola Sturgeon is quitting, the SNP’s gender obsession should follow her out the door. John Swinney is standing by Nicola Sturgeon’s toxic legacy of failure and division.’

The First Minister said Ms Sturgeon introduced a Domestic Abuse Act and made free period products available in public places – an idea lifted from Labour MSP Monica Lennon.

She also appointed Scotland’s first gender-balanced Cabinet, he told MSPs.

He accused Mr Findlay of scraping ‘the bottom of the barrel with the type of toxic personality politics that have become the character of the Conservative party in Scotland’.

He said: ‘I think the more the people of Scotland look at the Scottish Conservatives, the more they will see a party that is toxic in everything that it says.’