RISHI Sunak has mocked the SNP at the Tory party conference, claiming that the UK Government had sent enough money to Holyrood to pay for “28,000 motorhomes”.
Speaking at a Scottish Conservative reception in Manchester, the Prime Minister also said – despite the polls – that they would “smash” the nationalists at the next General Election, according to The Telegraph.
In response, the SNP said the Tory leader's "snide remarks" were a "mortifying attempt to distract".
Former SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, her husband Peter Murrell and former party treasurer Colin Beattie were arrested earlier this year as part of an investigation into the party’s finances. All three were subsequently released without charge.
A motorhome – reportedly earmarked for the SNP Holyrood election campaign in 2021 as Covid-19 swept across Scotland but then sat outside Murrell’s mother’s house as restrictions eased – was also seized by police.
Sunak reportedly told colleagues: “We are supporting Scotland more than ever before.
“In the last autumn statement, we announced £1.8 billion of extra funding from the UK Government going in to top up the Scottish budget.
“But, on terms Nicola Sturgeon will understand, that’s 28,000 motorhomes.”
Sunak also praised his Scottish colleagues for “holding those independence crusaders to account” and claimed that the UK was “undoubtedly the world’s most successful political union”.
He added: “Keep up the fight and we’re going to go and smash that lot at the next General Election.”
An SNP spokesman said: “This is a mortifying attempt from the Prime Minister to distract from the truth we all know; that the Tories are finished, and no number of snide remarks or grandstanding comments can save them now.
“From dragging Scotland out of the EU with a Brexit we didn’t vote for, to undermining Scotland’s net zero ambitions, and forcing Scottish households to pay the price for the disastrous economic mismanagement – Rishi Sunak has some brass neck to pretend he knows or cares about Scotland’s interests.”
