ED Miliband has repeatedly refused to endorse the personal decision by Anas Sarwar, the deputy leader of the Scottish Labour, to send his son to private school.
The UK Labour chief, who has made a point of sending his own son to state school, suggested it was a matter for the Glasgow Central MP.
While he defended the general right of parents to pay for private education, Miliband repeatedly chose not to defend the specific decision of Labour's Scottish deputy.
The Sunday Herald revealed in January how Sarwar had snubbed the Labour-run primaries used by his constituents and instead chosen £8234-a-year Hutchesons' Grammar for his son. The decision is understood to have gone down badly with senior party members.
Sarwar is himself a former pupil of Hutchesons' Grammar, in Glasgow's southside, and recently gave a talk there to S4 and S5 students.
In 2010, comprehensive-educated Miliband announced he would send his son Daniel, then 15 months old, to a state school in London.
He said of parents who chose private school: "I'm not angry at them but I think it would be better for our society if they felt they were able to send their kids to state school."
Speaking to the Sunday Herald in Edinburgh on Friday, Miliband confirmed he had kept his pledge and Daniel was having a state education.
Asked what message it sent out when Sarwar sent his son to a private school, Miliband said: "Look, parents have to make their own decisions about the schooling of their kids. I made my decision about what was best for my kid, but I'm not going to start getting into criticism of other colleagues when they make their own decisions."
When it was pointed out that Sarwar had turned his back on schools effectively run by Labour, which controls Glasgow City Council and where the husband of Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont is depute leader, Miliband said: "I've given you my answer." Asked if he would defend Sarwar, he again said: "I've given you my answer."
Asked why he wasn't defending Sarwar, an increasingly uncomfortable-looking Miliband said: "I absolutely defend the right of parents to make their own decisions about their kids."
Finally, when it was suggested that Sarwar, who has spoken often of his commitment to social justice, was a hypocrite, Miliband said: "I think I've answered your question."
Sarwar, 31, a dentist before entering politics, became MP for Glasgow East in 2010. The seat had previously been held by his father, Mohammad Sarwar, the UK's first Muslim MP, now Governor of Punjab in Pakistan.
Tipped as one of the stars of Scottish Labour and a potential leader, Anas Sarwar became Lamont's deputy in December 2011.
However, the decision to send his five-year-old son to "Hutchie", where fees range from £8234 a year for primary to £10,230 for secondary pupils, has proven controversial.
He has been accused of double-standards for talking about the need for "world-class public services" and tackling inequality while choosing an elite institution for his family.
Hutchie pupils achieve better grades than children at local comprehensives while fewer than 5% of Scots children are educated in the private sector.
Since the Sunday Herald revealed Sarwar's decision, he has been sidelined from his party's pro-Union effort in the referendum. He was the original leader of the party's "United with Labour" campaign, but Lamont recently elbowed him aside. He is now going round Scotland on a bus.
Nationalist MSP John Wilson said: "Clearly, questions must be raised about the continuing role of Anas Sarwar as deputy leader of the Labour Party in Scotland when even Ed Miliband is not prepared to defend his decision to send his son to a fee-paying school. This highlights the growing division within the Labour leadership."
A Scottish Labour spokesman said: "This is a new low for the SNP. The Labour Party ... are united behind our campaign to keep Scotland strong in the United Kingdom. The SNP look increasingly desperate as they bicker about their failing campaign strategy and who will replace Alex Salmond after a No vote. Most Scots can see through these lame attempts to divert from the crisis they are in."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article