The UK Government has been accused of handing Levelling Up funding to wealthy areas in England at the expense of the poorest communities in Scotland. Tory ministers were criticised after millions in taxpayers' cash was last week awarded to projects in well-off local authority areas south of the Border.
It has now emerged that five of the least well-off council areas in Scotland received no grants from the Levelling Up fund at all. Glasgow, North Ayrshire, Clackmannanshire, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire are all ranked in the top 10 most-deprived areas according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD).
In comparison, the London Borough of Sutton was awarded £14.1million to improve train services to Belmont. Rishi Sunak was also forced to defend £19million awarded to his own constituency of Richmond, in North Yorkshire, arguing the money would benefit armed forces personnel.
A total of 111 areas across the UK have been awarded money from the second round of the government's Levelling Up Fund. SNP MP Chris Stephens said: "Scotland is being shortchanged by Westminster, our most deprived areas should be the ones to benefit from Levelling Up funding, but instead they are left with absolutely nothing. It demonstrates how Westminster does not have Scotland's best interests at heart and why we must forge a path towards independence.
"It is scandalous that funding has been funnelled away from Scotland and to richer Tory councils in England. This is not levelling up, it is Tory pork barrel politics at its worst and making wealthy areas even wealthier
"Levelling Up funding was supposed to replace EU support, but it has fallen drastically short of what Scotland received from the EU by millions. Scotland will continue to be short-changed under Westminster control as the pro-Brexit Labour party will keep us out of the European Union, despite overwhelmingly rejecting Brexit."
A spokeswoman for the UK Government said: "The Levelling Up fund is investing in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, spreading opportunity to historically overlooked areas. All projects were subject to a rigorous assessment process under robust, fair and transparent rules, with no involvement of local MPs in the selection process."
The idea of "levelling up" - or reducing regional inequality - was a key part of Boris Johnson's 2019 election campaign. Its aim was to close the gap between rich and poor parts of the country by improving services such as education, broadband and transport.
But Labour has argued the money does not make up for past cuts made by Conservative governments. Shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy said last week: "It takes an extraordinary arrogance to expect us to be grateful for a partial refund on the money they have stripped out of our communities."
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