THE UK Government budget granted Canary Wharf £16,000 more per head in additional funding than Scotland in the Spring Budget, according to analysis from the SNP.
The party has said that the extra money given to the London area is indicative that Scotland is not a priority.
Canary Wharf is a key financial centre and is home to the headquarters of several big banks including Barclays and Morgan Stanley.
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Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt (below) announced £118 million in investment for the financial district last month at the Spring Budget.
The area has a resident population of 7076 people with the additional money working out at around £16,700 per person, according to the analysis.
In his Spring 2024 Budget speech, Hunt claimed that the Scottish Government would receive approximately £300m (actually £295m) in extra grants from the UK Treasury in financial year 2024-25 as a result of Barnett “consequentials”.
Speaking to the Daily Record, the SNP’s levelling up spokesperson Anum Qaisar said: “Westminster’s priorities are clear for all to see – and Scotland isn’t one of them in this broken Brexit Britain.
“Scotland has been dragged out of the EU against our will, our Scottish Parliament and its powers have been ignored and undermined, and our businesses and household budgets have been repeatedly hammered by Westminster’s austerity, cost of living crisis and overall economic chaos.
“And now we see that London’s Canary Wharf, host to some of the biggest banks in the world and their rich bankers, is receiving over £16,000 more per person than Scotland, in additional funding.
“This isn’t levelling up – it’s the Tories looking to keep their banker mates happy.”
The MP added that the Tories “have spent years making the rich richer and the poor poorer” and that Keir Starmer’s Labour Party “offer no alternative”.
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A UK Government spokesperson said the analysis was “misleading” and that “decisions at the Spring Budget took our direct investment in levelling up Scotland past the £3bn mark”.
“The Scottish Government receives around 25% more funding per person than equivalent UK Government spending in other parts of the UK through its record £41bn per year settlement.”
The latest analysis comes a day after the SNP said that more than £50bn “wasted” by the UK Government could have funded millions of police officers and nurses or built more than 100 hospitals.
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