MICHAEL Gove has been urged to deliver a Conservative manifesto pledge to replace EU funding for Scotland following Brexit ahead of an appearance at a Holyrood committee.
The UK Levelling Up Secretary will appear in front of MSPs on the Scottish Parliament’s Finance and Public Administration committee this afternoon.
As part of post-Brexit arrangements, the Tories promised to match all EU funding Scotland was set to lose out on following the decision to leave the European Union.
The Scottish Government estimates that shortfall to be at least £183 million each year.
Funding is set to be allocated in April through the UK Government's shared prosperity fund, but the Scottish Government has yet to receive confirmation the UK Government will match previous EU funding – a Tory party manifesto.
SNP MSP Paul McLennan said: “Scotland is set to miss out on hundreds of millions of pounds per year in lost EU funding as a result of another broken Tory manifesto commitment.
“Scotland is all too familiar with this – when it comes to the Tories and funding in Scotland all we get is cuts, not cash.
“Once again Scotland is being shafted for a Brexit that it did not vote for and Michael Gove must come to committee and confirm that Scotland will receive its share through the shared prosperity fund.
“If the Tories cannot deliver on its manifesto promise then it will be another Tory promise to throw on the scrapheap."
“This is another demonstration of how only the full powers of independence will give Scotland the ability to take decisions in our own national interest.”
A UK Government spokesperson said: “The UK shared prosperity fund – worth over £2.6 billion - will focus on jobs, communities and local businesses and will at least match receipts from EU structural funds across the UK.
“EU structural funding will also continue until the end of 2023.”
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel