Sturgeon’s ‘petty’ gripe as city gains £100m for research hub
NICOLA Sturgeon has been criticised for launching a ‘petty’ attack on multi-million pound plans to create jobs and investment across the UK.
The SNP leader branded the UK Government’s new Levelling Up White Paper as a ‘desperate attempt’ to divert attention away from Boris Johnson’s problems.
The blueprint includes a series of spending plans for Scotland, with Glasgow set to receive £100million for an innovation centre as part of an attempt to replicate the success of California’s Silicon Valley.
It also features 12 missions to be achieved by 2030, including improving attainment in schools, tackling transport and connectivity problems and closing the gap between the best and worst-performing UK cities.
Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said he wanted to ‘pull together’ with devolved administrations and local councils to work on the plan.
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘It’s re-hashed money, it’s re-hashed announcements and it’s a pretty desperate attempt
‘She whinges about process’
by a beleaguered Westminster Government and an utterly discredited Prime Minister to try to divert people’s attention and I think it might take more than that to succeed.’
She added: ‘I always welcome extra money for Scotland, but these are issues that are – in the main – the responsibility of the Scottish parliament and Westminster is, I know, trying to muscle in, to spend money, make decisions over the heads of not just the Scottish parliament, but the Welsh parliament, the Northern Irish parliament as well.
‘If the UK Government is genuine about wanting to work together, and I’m very happy to do so, the essential starting point for them is to actually respect the responsibilities of the Scottish parliament rather than ride roughshod over them.’
A Scottish Conservative spokesman said: ‘Just for once it would be nice to hear the First Minister give an unequivocal welcome to UK Government investment in Scotland.
‘She cuts a petty, partisan figure when she whinges about process, instead of backing an announcement that will bring prosperity and highskilled jobs to Glasgow.’
A UK Government source said: ‘This is a deeply disappointing response from the Scottish Government to ambitious plans which will transform Scottish lives and communities.
‘Rather than dismissing concrete action to tackle the scourge of inequality, Scottish ministers should focus on working together for the good of the people of Scotland.’
Three locations have been identified for £100million ‘innovation accelerators’: Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and Glasgow City-Region.
The White Paper says partnerships will be set up between the private and public sectors and universities at the sites ‘which will aim to replicate the Stanford-Silicon Valley and MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology]-Greater Boston models of clustering research excellence and its direct adoption by allied industries’.
Conservative MSP for Glasgow Annie Wells said: ‘This announcement is fabulous news for Glasgow.’
Mr Gove said: ‘When it comes to inequality, the Scottish Government have presided over growing inequality in education outcomes in schools in Scotland. We want to work with them to reverse that.’