MICHAEL Gove has accused the SNP of being "grievance-mongering separatists" as he denied accusations that Westminster was stealing from Scottish farmers.
Speaking in the Commons amid concerns over a delayed review into how EU subsidies are distributed, the Environment Secretary attacked the SNP when challenged on the issue by Alan Brown.
EU Convergence Uplift payments of £190 million to the UK were triggered due to the low rate of Common Agriculture Policy (Cap) payments given to Scottish hill farmers.
Only Scotland qualified for the payments, aimed at distributing the subsidies more fairly based on average euros per hectare. England, Wales and Northern Ireland were all above the threshold.
It was reported last month that the UK Government had only allocated around £30 million of the uplift payments to Scotland, with the rest being distributed around the UK.
Speaking in the Commons, the SNP's Brown asked: "Will he confirm once and for all that Scottish farmers will not see any of the £200 million EU convergence uplift money that Westminster has stolen from them?"
Gove replied: "Westminster hasn't stolen anything from Scotland's farmers. Indeed, it's only thanks to the strength and the unity of the United Kingdom that Scotland's farmers have a firm platform on which to build.
"One of the things that I thought was striking at the General Election, which we all remember with such fondness occurring only 12 months ago, was that Scottish National Party colleagues – many of them talented individuals - lost their seats to Scottish Conservative and Unionist colleagues.
"Because rural Scotland knows that its interests are better represented by the party of the union than by the divisive, grievance-mongering separatists who masquerade as Scotland's voice but are in fact Scotland's girners."
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