Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has said it was “completely proper and justifiable” to spend emergency Covid cash on Union polling.
The Commons leader dismissed suggestions that the polls on support for independence, carried out during the pandemic, were a “misuse” of taxpayers money.
READ MORE: 'Scandal' over Gove's use of pandemic research contract to test attitudes to the Union
The comments come after calls from the SNP to launch a public inquiry into the decision to commission the polls from a £560,000 Covid fund.
Boris Johnson told MPs yesterday that he was “not aware” of polling, but Mr Rees-Mogg defended the decision.
Jacob-Rees Mogg
He said: “The work undertaken on attitudes to the Union was a reasonable thing to poll for, it’s really important when you’re developing a communication strategy to work out how we will learn most effectively.
“There was a great deal of work to be done to communicate the messages about staying at home, about working from home, about wearing face masks and so on and so forth.
“I think this was completely proper and justifiable.
“I imagine that other governments in similar circumstances would have done much the same.”
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