We need replacement funding guarantees

Sir, - An issue raised within the Conservative manifesto and which is clearly a cause of some concern is the small matter of EU funding.

Scotland is set to lose £110 million a year of socalled EU structural funding, vital cash that helps create jobs, boosts training, and develops transport projects and green energy.

This funding from the European Commission is currently managed by the Scottish Government, but with Brexit, this funding will be lost and it will be up to the UK Government to plug any gap created.

There are, however, no guarantees, further reinforced by the Conservative manifesto, that the funds lost will be fully replaced in Scotland by a future Conservative Government.

This proposes the establishment of a United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund.

In addition to this is the issue of Common Agriculture Policy funding, amounting to around £560m a year.

While this support funding is guaranteed in the manifesto until the end of the parliament, there is no guarantee that a similar level of such funding will continue beyond this.

Following Brexit, Scotland will be at the whim of Westminster as to how any such future funding is allocated.

What we require are guarantees that this vital funding will be replaced and that it is additional to, not replacing money in the current Scottish Government budget.

Alex Orr. 77/2 Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh.

Picture: Getty. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson attends the launch of the Conservative Party manifesto in Halifax on May 18.