PM mobilises task force to combat threat of UK break-up
‘Alex Salmond [is] maybe creating an alternative reality in which the organs of the state were all part of some wild conspiracy against him’
A NEW Cabinet committee tasked with saving the Union will meet for the first time next week, as Boris Johnson draws up plans to combat the growing momentum for Scottish independence.
Senior Government sources last night confirmed the Prime Minister would chair the committee, which is going to shape the strategy for preventing the break-up of the UK.
They also signalled that he was considering how post-brexit spending powers could allow the UK Government to intervene in areas that were devolved and controlled by the SNP administration.
The Union Strategy committee will complement an existing policy committee, and will be attended by Mr Johnson, Rishi Sunak, Michael Gove and the secretaries of state for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Lord Frost, who was last week promoted to the Cabinet to take charge of the UK’S future relations with the European Union, will also attend.
The Treasury yesterday announced that a £4.8billion fund to help drive regeneration was being extended from England to cover all four nations of the UK. The “levelling up” fund was originally announced in last year’s spending review with £4billion for town centre regeneration, local transport and cultural and heritage projects in England.
Whitehall sources said the fund was one of the first major examples of the UK Internal Market Act being used to boost investment after Brexit.
Mr Johnson is also looking at how the Act, which was introduced to manage the UK’S departure from the EU, could be used to increase Westminster’s involvement in Scottish affairs.
According to The Spectator, one proposal would see local councils bid for money allocated from Westminster to fund public services that might not be funded by the Scottish government, such as drug treatment centres.