SNP to tap £330m pandemic fund for Brexit preparations
SCOTLAND’S finance chief has come under fire after it emerged she is to use money earmarked for the pandemic response on Brexit preparations.
Kate Forbes has withdrawn her pledge to spend ‘every penny’ of coronavirus funding on tackling effects of the crisis.
But a report shows she is planning to keep up to £330million of the funds allocated for coronavirus for Brexitrelated spending.
The document, published by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Spice), said Miss Forbes’s comments are ‘at odds’ with later statements she has made.
The report states: ‘While the Barnetts to which these funds relate derive from UK Government’s coronavirus response package, the Cabinet Secretary also said she was keeping open the option of using some of the £330million to support funding requirements that might arise as a result of the end of the EU transition period.
‘This would seem at odds with comments made by the Cabinet Secretary to allocate all of the Covid-19 Barnett consequentials to Covid- 19 spending in Scotland.’
Last month, the Finance Secretary told MSPs that ‘when it comes to the Budget, it is not about holding things back but about budgeting for the forecast pressures’.
She added: ‘Every penny will be allocated on Covid spend, but it is not the case any money will be sitting aside unused.’
Boris Johnson has warned the funds should ‘be spent on the things they’re intended.’
The disclosure comes only days after Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said that the Scottish Government should set out how funds have been spent on preparing for the end of the Brexit transition period.
Yesterday, Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael said: ‘There will be a lot of nurses and care home managers in Scotland who will read with disbelief that the Scottish Government are holding back funds intended for Covid-19.
‘The First Minister was all too happy to splash the cash at her party conference for coverage but frontline workers and local councils cannot afford to wait until the next time is it electorally convenient for the SnP.
‘If there is money allocated for the pandemic then it should be spent on the pandemic.
‘Any financial i ssues with Brexit will come back to the Treasury, so it is hard to see how this hoarding can be justified while livelihoods are under pressure.’ Health Secretary Jeane Freeman yesterday defended Miss Forbes, and insisted that decisions over how funding is used in Scotland should be made by the Scottish Government.
She said: ‘It isn’t a contradiction with what Miss Forbes said – every penny that is identifiable as additional Covid consequentials and where it should go, how it is connected to another area of necessary spend, has been allocated.
‘But, you know, Miss Forbes made the point that [ the £330million] may be necessary for Brexit.’
Miss Freeman added: ‘ The decisions about how contingency is used will be set out in the Scottish Budget.’
Last night, Scottish Tory economy spokesman Maurice Golden said: ‘It seems that the SnP Finance Secretary cannot get her story straight about spending.
‘This is not a trait we want in someone supposedly in charge of the books.
‘One minute she says that all new UK Government funding will be used to address the pandemic and the next she’s saying it’s for Brexit.
‘not only is that contradictory and in need of explanation, we still are not entirely clear about how they [the SnP] will spend money i ntended for Brexit preparedness.
‘The public deserve transparency and must be told how Covid and Brexit funding is being spent.’
‘Should be spent on Covid crisis’ ‘Hard to see how this is justified’