Brexit deal loss

Theresa May to ‘open her mind to the right way forward’

make sure that [Scottish local authorities] are able to access that money”.

Responding to the report in The Scotsman, Ms Evison – a Labour councillor in Aberdeenshire – said: “We have clearly established responsibilities under devolution which must be upheld.

“We also have clear systems of distribution to local authorities and a key role for Cosla which must be respected. The UK government is not playing by the rules.”

The SNP’S Treasury spokeswoman, MP Alison Thewliss, said that “control over the Scottish Parliament’s spending decisions must be made in Holyrood, not “stolen and hoarded” by a detached Tory government in Westminster”.

Professor James Mitchell, a leading public policy academic

at the University of Edinburgh, warned the government had “undermined” the “Vow” made by Unionist leaders including prime minister David Cameron during the 2014 independence referendum to protect the Barnett formula. Murray Foote, the ex-daily Record editor who published the “Vow” on the newspaper’s front page, said yesterday that “if the Tories are intent on bypassing Barnett, prepare for a rush to man the barricades”.

At First Minister’s Questions yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon also commented on the growing row over the future of the Barnett formula.

She was asked about reports that another fund designed to replace hundreds of millions of pounds of EU investment after Brexit