1 Jun 2020
UK Government spending to help Scotland fight the impact of coronavirus has exceeded £10 billion, new analysis has revealed.
Last week, the SNP admitted the bulk of emergency cash had come from Westminster.
Now fresh figures have revealed the true scale of UK support for dealing with the pandemic.
Barnett Consequentials from spending in England has resulted in £3.5 billion for the Scottish Government to distribute.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s job retention scheme has led to spending of £4.8 billion, resulting in the protection of hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Nearly £700 million has been invested in supporting the self-employed, and loans schemes have provided around £1.3 billion in cash for Scottish firms.
And help has also arrived through uplifts in Universal Credit (£119 million), statutory sick pay support (£77 million) and working tax credit uplifts (£28.6 million).
Shadow finance secretary Donald Cameron said the sheer scale of the support proved the UK’s commitment to Scotland, and how all four nations benefit from the broad shoulders of the union.
Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary Donald Cameron said:
“The level of financial support from the UK Government is astonishing and unprecedented.
“It proves how valuable this union of four nations is, and how we pull together in times of crisis.
“It also puts firmly to bed any suggestion that Westminster doesn’t care about Scotland – this shows 10 billion reasons very much to the contrary.
“This money isn’t just being used to arm the health and care services with what they need to fight coronavirus.
“It’s safeguarding hundreds of thousands of jobs, making sure our economy can return to strength, and protecting the most vulnerable in society.”
Follow this news feed: Scottish Conservatives