DEREK Mackay has been urged to explain where he is spending millions of pounds passed on by Westminster for Brexit.
Labour attacked the Finance Secretary after he confirmed he had diverted £10m of Brexit-related 'Barnett formula consequentials' last year into other spending areas.
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The UK Government gave Edinburgh £37.3m in 2018/19 as part of its £1.5bn Brexit preparation fund, but the Scottish Government only spent £27.1m on “specific Brexit related activity”.
A further £54.7m for 2019/20 has been “fully absorbed” into the Scottish budge, but Mr Mackay said Brexit spending was “not separately identifiable”.
Barnett consequentials do not have to be spent on a particular area, but Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said it was irresponsible not to use them to “shield Scottish businesses from the worst excesses of a new Tory Prime Minister”.
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She said: “Derek Mackay and the SNP should come clean on this funding and what they intend to do to ensure jobs are not put at risk from their actions.”
A spokesperson for Mr Mackay: “Over the last few weeks Labour have accused the SNP Government of overspending our budget, then they criticised us for underspending it - and now they’re criticising us for not underspending enough. The only consistency in Labour’s position is that they don’t have any idea how public finances work."
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