BORIS Johnson’s keynote speech on the economic recovery has been brutally dismissed as a rehash of old spending plans by Nicola Sturgeon, who declared herself “extremely underwhelmed” by it.

The First Minister said the £5billion investment in infrastructure projects announced by Mr Johnson yesterday was “simply shuffling around money already in the system”.

She said it did not come close to the scale of the economic challenge facing the country as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

Nor would it deliver any extra cash for Holyrood under the Barnett funding formula, she said.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats called the speech “word vomit”. Speaking in the West Midlands, the Prime Minister said the UK could “build, build, build” its way out of the coming recession with the help of fast-track planning reforms.

He also said he wanted to deliver “job, jobs, jobs,” but could not say how many. He refused to say if he would keep his manifesto pledge not to raise National Insurance, income tax or VAT to pay for the recovery.

Instead, he wanted to “ensure the tax burden, in so far as we possibly can, is reasonable”, but left it to Chancellor Rishi Sunak to say more next week.

Mr Johnson said: “We must work fast, because we’ve already seen the vertiginous drop in GDP, and we know that people are worried about their jobs and their businesses.

“And we’re waiting as if between the flash of lightning and the thunderclap, with our hearts in our mouths, for the full economic reverberations to appear.”

He said there would be no return to the austerity seen in the wake of the 2008/09 crash, saying the Government was “not going to cheesepare our way out of trouble”. He said ‘Project Speed’ would see the country “build back greener”, although there are fears fast-tracked planning applications could prove a blight.

Mr Johnson boldly compared the scheme to President Roosevelt’s New Deal in the US in the 1930s.

But he later admitted the pledges on schools, hospitals, roads and housing in England were versions of existing manifesto plans, albeit “speeded up, intensified and increased” ones.

After creating a new Cabinet committee on the Union, he also used his speech to call the UK an “incredible partnership” that had “more than shown its worth” during the coronavirus crisis.

It was the “might of the United Kingdom Treasury” had saved jobs and businesses through the furlough scheme which has now supported 9.3m employees, he said.

He also announced a study of road, rail, air and “cross-sea links” around the four nations, the latter a reference to his much-derided idea for a “Boris bridge” or tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Extending the Borders railway to Carlisle could be another option. Mr Johnson said he also wanted to dual the A1 in England.

Asked at her daily briefing about dualling the A1 in Scotland, Ms Sturgeon said she was “sceptical” the Prime Minister would deliver.

She said: “I hope what the Prime Minister has announced is the start of a conversation about fiscal stimulus and not the end. To put it mildly, I am extremely underwhelmed by what has been announced.

“Our expectation is there will be no additional [Barnett funding formula] consequentials from the Prime Minister’s announcement for Scotland or the other devolved administrations.

“What that says is that this is not new money. This is simply shuffling around money that was already in the system.

“I don’t think that is commensurate with the scale of the challenge.”

Picking up on the PM’s comparison with President Roosevelt, she said: “The New Deal under FDR was worth 40 per cent of US GDP at the time.

“What Germany has announced right now in terms of its stimulus is worth 4% of German GDP.

“What the Prime Minister announced - and it’s not even new money - would be less than half a per cent of UK GDP. It’s simply not on the scale that is required.”

Whitehall sources confirmed there would not be extra Barnett money for Scotland as a result of Project Speed. Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said: “The Prime Minister’s plan to improve transport links across the country shows unwavering commitment to strengthening the Union and boosting the UK’s internal market.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “The Prime Minister promised a New Deal, but there is not much that’s new, and it’s not much of a deal.

“We are facing an economic crisis – the biggest we have seen in a generation – and the recovery needs to match that. “What’s been announced amounts to less than £100 per person, and it’s the re-announcement of many manifesto pledges and commitments.”

Scottish LibDem MP Jamie Stone added: “We need detailed action plans,  not rhetoric. Today’s speech entailed no details, no actual plan, just word vomit. We deserve so much better.”

Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw said the Scottish Government should follow Mr Johnson’s “urgency” in building infrastructure projects.

He said: “The Scottish Government has already been given an additional £5.4 billion, they have the money and the ability to act now.”

CBI director-general Dame Carolyn Fairbairn warned: “The reality is that longer-term plans will falter without continued help for firms still in desperate difficulty”.

STUC general secretary Rozanne Foyer said: “BJ is no FDR. His speech lacked coherence and so does his plan.

“His greatest passion seemed to be cutting red tape which is all too often code for cutting the rights of workers and environmental standards.”

Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said: “This is the bleakest possible vision of a recovery.

“His plan to ‘build, build, build’ includes a massive road-building programme and deeply-alarming deregulation of the housing market. “It’s very much the old deal on stilts.”