SNP MSP COLIN BEATTIE SLATES MORE TORY BROKEN PROMISES AS MIDLOTHIAN AND EAST LOTHIAN ARE SHORT-CHANGED BY NEARLY £5.6 MILLION ON EU REPLACEMENT FUNDING

SNP MSP Colin Beattie has slated the Westminster Tory Government for failing the people of Midlothian and East Lothian by short-changing them by the equivalent of nearly £2.6 million for Midlothian and nearly £3 million for East Lothian, through the so-called Shared Prosperity Fund.
 
Following Brexit, which the people of Midlothian and East Lothian did not vote for, the UK Government promised to replace every penny of the money Scotland previously received from the European Union. For this year, it is estimated that would have been £183 million.
 
However, figures just published show that Scotland will receive only £32million this year. That is £151 million short of the £183 million promised and works out at an estimated equivalent of £5.6 million for Midlothian and East Lothian.
 
Commenting, MSP Colin Beattie said: “Not only did the people of Midlothian and East Lothian not vote for Tory Brexit, we are paying a very high price for this disastrous Tory obsession.
 
“EU funding has supported infrastructure projects and community initiatives across the country since the 1970s, with Scotland receiving and delivering more than £6 billion of EU Structural Funds.
 
“Being short-changed again by the Tories, this time to the equivalent of nearly £5.6 million really adds insult to injury for the people of Midlothian and East Lothian.
 
“This demonstrates exactly why the Tories’ sick joke of ‘levelling up’ actually means our community losing out, with Midlothian and East Lothian facing the estimated loss of nearly £5.6 million had Scotland not been taken out of the EU against our will.
 
“Not only that, the Scottish Government previously made decisions about how best to spend the EU money based on local priorities. Now a UK Tory Government – which Scotland did not vote for and hasn’t done for a lifetime - is cutting Scotland’s elected Government out of the decision-making process. That is both a betrayal of democracy and a disgrace that money will be spent on Tory priorities which will fail to meet the needs of communities in Midlothian and East Lothian.
 
“This is yet another shocking demonstration why the Tories cannot be trusted with Scotland’s future. Scotland deserves better than Partygate liar Boris Johnson’s litany of broken promises.
 
“By voting SNP in the local elections on May the people of Scotland will send a crystal clear message to Johnson’s Tories that they will never be trusted.”