AN SNP MP has written to the head of the Civil Service calling for an investigation into Rishi Sunak’s revelation that he diverted money from deprived urban areas to wealthier ones whilst he was chancellor.
Patricia Gibson has described the move as a “carbon-copy” of the one used by John Major’s government in the 1990s, which saw cash diverted from the Highlands to the south-east of England.
During a Conservative leadership hustings in Kent, Sunak said: “I managed to start changing the funding formulas to make sure that areas like this are getting the funding that they deserve, because we inherited a bunch of formulas from the Labour Party that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas […] that needed to be undone. I started the work of undoing that.”
In a letter to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, Gibson has described what happened as “utterly unacceptable” and that Scotland “deserved better than anything the Tory prime ministerial candidates offer”.
The letter reads: “The Conservative Party has previously been found to have taken public money from deprived rural areas like the Scottish Highlands and reallocated it to wealthy Tory-voting towns in the south-east of England in pursuit of electoral gain during John Major’s premiership in the 1990s.
“It is utterly unacceptable for the former Chancellor of the Exchequer to suggest he has already adopted a similar approach whilst holding high public office and plans to continue this practice if he were chosen as the next Prime Minister.
“This fundamentally undermines the UK Government’s levelling up agenda. Each member of the United Kingdom deserves to be supported fairly and justly, not subjected to disproportionate funding cuts to non-Tory voting areas in favour of extra support for Tory-voting heartlands.”
The letter continued by stating that the “disrespect” of the UK Government was evident in the distribution of levelling up and shared prosperity funds.
It said that UK Government Ministers were deciding where to spend money in devolved areas with no reference to Scotland’s government and elected MSPs.
Earlier this year, SNP MP Deirdre Brock raised concerns about the funding of projects in her constituency in Edinburgh North and Leith which were bypassing the devolution agreement.
At the time, Brock was told to “suck it up and go with the programme”.
Gibson’s letter also urged Case to “conduct an immediate investigation into any changes made to funding formulas” which benefited wealthier areas at the expense of more disadvantaged communities.
Commenting, Gibson said: “Rishi Sunak’s comments about redistributing public funds should concern everyone in Scotland.
“John Major diverted cash from the Highlands to the south-east of England to boost dwindling support in 1992, and if Rishi Sunak is elected as the new prime minister, we will see a carbon-copy effort imposed.
“Not only is this proposal anti-democratic, it fundamentally undermines the UK government’s own 'levelling up' agenda – proving beyond doubt that it is nothing more than a baseless slogan.
“That is why I have written to the Cabinet Secretary, urging him to launch an immediate investigation into any changes to funding formulas, which would ensure wealthier areas benefitted from funding at the expense of more socially disadvantaged communities.
“Rishi Sunak, like all Conservative MPs, has shown his true colours with these comments. Only by choosing independence can we rid ourselves of these charlatans once and for all.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said the letter had been received and that they would respond in due course.
They added: "All projects are assessed under robust, fair and transparent rules.
"Successful bids from our Levelling Up Fund came from places represented by leaders across the political spectrum and a mix of rural and urban areas in need of regeneration.
"The political party of any council does not have an impact on the success of bids."
The Treasury have also been contacted for comment.
