CHANCELLOR Rishi Sunak is still stonewalling Scottish Finance Secretary Kate Forbes as a clutch of meeting requests go unanswered, the Sunday National can reveal.
The revelation comes as Forbes releases a six-page letter calling on Sunak to deliver a £98 million fiscal stimulus worth at least 5% of GDP that would be on a par with recovery packages in place in France, Germany and New Zealand.
Earlier this month she told MSPs she’d asked four times to speak with Sunak and been ignored.
More than two weeks later, it has emerged that the Chancellor has still failed to respond – because Boris Johnson’s ministers are “very busy”.
That’s despite key economic developments like major changes in furlough support, the oncoming UK spending review and the running down of the clock on Brexit.
READ IN FULL: UK Government 'too busy' for Scotland: Kate Forbes on struggles with Westminster
In an interview with this newspaper, Forbes says it has been “quite a while” since she’d been able to speak with Sunak – so long, in fact, she “can’t remember” when it had occurred.
Forbes recounts how she made several approaches after the UK Government announced it would extend the furlough scheme as England headed into a second lockdown, stating: “I made four or five requests for a meeting, none of which were responded to. I have had no feedback since.
“Over that week and in the days afterwards the only response we got was that the UK Government were very busy.”
On inter-governmental discussions around next week’s spending review, she says: “There had been a request for a meeting before then to outline what we expect from the spending review, particularly around replacement for European funding, which was a Tory promise but which we have had next to no information on and there has been no meeting guaranteed.
“It’s in the interests of the people of Scotland that we share information and work constructively.
“It can be the difference between jobs being saved.”
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