Sunak may approve Tay Cities Deal soon

Chancellor Rishi Sunak could rubber-stamp the long- awaited Tay Cities Deal next week, Scottish To r y leader Douglas Ross has suggested.

The £700 million package will fund projects across Tayside and Fife, including the controversial Cross Tay Link Road at Perth, creating thousands of jobs.

Almost two years after the initial head of terms on the deal was signed, Mr Ross said the UK Government was now “in a good place to deliver”.

The Scottish Tory leader said he had been in meetings with the chancellor and Boris Jo h n s o n this week to discuss the inclusion of the Tay deal, and several other Scottish deals, in next w e e k ’s comprehensive spending review announcement.

He said: “I’ve been doing a lot of work as leader of the party with colleagues in the Scotland Office to push this forward and to try to reprofile the money that the UK Government is putting in.

“I think we’re in a good place to deliver.”

In November 2018, the Scottish and UK governments agreed to provide £150 million each as part of the city deal, which covers the Angus, Dundee, Fife and Perth and Kinross local authority areas.

At the time it was said the project could bring in hundreds of millions of pounds in investment, potentially securing more than 6,000 jobs over the period.

In Januar y 2019 the Scottish Government announced it would provide an additional £50 million investment, for transport, infrastructure and manufacturing projects.

Infrastructure Secretary Michael Matheson told MSPs earlier this month that the Scottish Government has been ready to sign the Tay Cities Deal for a “considerable time” and hit out at delays.

Scotland Office minister Iain Stewart said the delays had been “for a good reason” and would result in a better deal.

Meanwhile, Mr Ross also warned there is a “real risk of soft fruit going to waste in Scotland” unless the Home O ff i c e urgently rethinks its post- Brexit immigration rules.

Fa r m s north of the border employ tens of thousands of non-UK nationals in seasonal jobs in the soft fruit and vegetable sectors each year.

Under the current postBrexit rules, up to 10,000 seasonal workers are to be granted permission to come into the UK – but the National Union of Farmers Scotland (NUFS) has said 70,000 workers will be needed next summer.

Ministers have argued British workers can fill the roles, but the NFU said e ff o r t s to recruit UK workers when lockdown restrictions ruled out foreign workers were “not as successful as hoped”.

Speaking on the opening day of the Scottish Tory conference, Mr Ross said he had made “a very strong case” to the prime minister and Home Secretary Priti Patel to revise the rules.

The Scottish Tory leader said: “We want to ensure that excellent produce gets out of the polytunnels and into the supermarkets.”

He added: “I think we have to go back, we have to listen to NFUS and we have to listen to sof t fruit growers across Scotland.

“I think this is a message that is being heard in Number 10.”

Mr Ross also insisted he of ten “challenges” the prime minister on his approach to Scotland.

T he comments come after Boris Johnson branded devolution a “disaster” and claimed it was one of Tony Blair’s “biggest mistakes”.

Mr Ross, appearing at the Scottish To r y conference, said he had spoken to the prime minister about the remarks and was reassured he “believes in devolution”.

“He has frustrations that a lot of people in Scotland share,” he added.

“He is frustrated about the way our country has been run after 13 and a half years of the SNP being in power.”

Mr Ross, who earlier this year said the attitude of his party in London was “making the case for independence” more effectively than the SNP, also defended his style of leadership.

“People don’t expect their politicians to be clones,” he said.

Above: The report on Priti Patel said her approach on occasions “amounted to behaviour that can be described as bullying in terms of the impact felt by individuals”. Below: Douglas Ross, left, is interviewed at the Conservative Party conference.