This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.

In June, ahead of the General Election, the Daily Record had a story about how a new Labour government would see the Scotland Office taking responsibility for handing out Levelling Up money.

The headline on the paper’s splash was Labour pledges £150m to fight Scots poverty.

The report said the party wanted to turn Mr Murray’s department “into a proper spending department with financial clout.”

And that to do this “over £150m will be given directly to the Scotland Office to dole out north of the border.”

READ MORE: What do Tory MSPs really think about Douglas Ross?

 

Now to be fair to Mr Murray, that number never escaped his lips. He was never quoted directly saying that he’d be spending £150m.

However, he didn’t exactly shut it down either.

In fact, he, Anas Sarwar, and the Scottish Labour official social media accounts all shared the front page of the Record.

Senior Labour figures retweeted stories from other papers that followed up on the story.

And yet, last week, when he was asked about it on the BBC’s Sunday Show, Mr Murray said that figure was “made up” by a journalist.

READ MORE: Ian Murray: Labour doesn't have £150 million ‘war chest’ for Scotland

So where did the £150m come from and exactly how much “financial clout” will the new Scottish Secretary have?

One of the reasons this row has really taken hold is that the UK Government’s decision to scrap the universal winter fuel payment saw the Scottish Government lose pretty much the exact same amount in consequentials.

That, SNP ministers say, is why they had no choice but to follow suit and target the winter fuel payment up here.

What we do know is that Labour’s manifesto committed the party to “restore decision-making over the allocation of structural funds to the representatives of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.”

They have to wait until the budget at the end of next month and then there will be legislation tabled in Parliament which will allow the Scotland Office to become a spending department.

Under the Tories, this cash was Levelling Up money, paid directly by the UK government to local communities.

The last round of funding handed out saw ten projects in Scotland given a total of £177m.

When I asked Mr Murray about it all at Labour conference, he told me: “It's not our figure. I think it's one of your journalistic colleague’s figures who's been digging around to see what's been spent in the past. So that's clearly what it is.”.

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So how much will he actually have?

There will, Mr Murray added last week, be money, but there is a process to go through first.

When he does have cash to spend, he will spend it on his “four priorities’ which are growth, green, brand and poverty.

There are two problems here, first of all the Scottish Government will see this as disrespectful to devolution. They will argue that as the government responsible for devolved areas they should be responsible for how cash is spent in areas.

That’s a political problem and one that Labour won't shy away from arguing.

READ MORE: Fears grow over £15m Drumchapel regeneration funding

The second — and I’d argue more difficult — problem for Mr Murray is over the promises made by the last government.

Over the weekend, The Herald reported that around £15m in Levelling Up funding awarded to Glasgow City Council last November for the regeneration of Drumchapel was now under review as ministers try to find ways to plug a £22bn black hole in the public finances.

Other Levelling Up projects across Scotland have been told similar.

Can Ian Murray really hand out cash to some communities while taking away cash already promised to others?