Barnett Formula funding should be shared with deprived North of England

The recent Tory electoral success in Northern England demands a less southern centric economic focus and more economic investment in the northern English counties.

Tory electoral success in the North of England will be shortlived without an obvious economic dividend for these English regions, and substantial redirection of Treasury funds is urgently required so as to be noticeable before the next general election.

The Barnett Formula was a temporary measure introduced in 1978 to channel Treasury funds to Scotland to address short-term regional economic disadvantage.

Despite being widely viewed as outdated and unfair to the English, it remains in place. English taxpayers are subsidising extra spending on Scottish services. Currently, the formula generates an average per capita UK Treasury spend of £1,700 pa more per Scotsman than Englishman.

As one who has lived and worked throughout Scotland and the northern English counties, I can categorically confirm that it is northern England who are most disadvantaged in so many ways due to this spending disparity on public services.

Edinburgh, Aberdeenshire, Perthshire, Stirling and large areas of the Scottish Borders and the West of Scotland enjoy higher standards of living and levels of service spending than most English residents of Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Teeside, County Durham, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and

Merseyside. I refer to free old age residential care, free prescriptions and free university tuition as obvious areas of disparity.

Isn’t it about time the UK government realigned its spending priorities? The Scottish nationalists won’t stop whingeing whatever we do, so why bother subsidising them with extra spending? At the very least invest equally in the North of England and Scotland!

LES SPENCER The Wirral, Merseyside

There was a great sigh of relief from the financial sections in the City of London on Friday morning. Boris Johnson had landed.

The private jets are back in the United Kingdom and the first-class tickets to the Cayman Islands sent back for a refund. The Cristal and Armand de Brignac champagnes are back on the Waitrose shelves.

The Pound is up, shares are up, and most importantly, confidence is up, in Europe as well as in the United Kingdom.

In the coming months we could see some of the investment that flowed out of Britain post-referendum coming back as Brexit becomes more of a certainty.

Unfortunately the country will remain divided for some time as the Brexit deal unravels and Scotland seeks a second referendum, and although the future may not be orange it is bright.

JAMES MACINTYRE Clarendon Road

Linlithgow