MICHAEL Gove’s Levelling Up white paper is a “desperate attempt” to distract from the scandals engulfing the Prime Minister, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
Communities Secretary Gove launched the proposals which outline plans for “12 national missions” including improving public transport and 5G connectivity.
However, the plans have been described as a “power grab” by the Scottish Government. The First Minister called into question the purpose and timing of the almost 400-page document’s release.
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Johnson is fighting for his premiership after an update from senior civil servant Sue Gray showed the Metropolitan Police are investigating 12 lockdown-busting events in Downing Street and Whitehall.
It comes as SNP MP Tommy Sheppard called the plans “meaningless window dressing” and “frankly insulting” after Gove gave a statement in the House of Commons.
Meanwhile, Labour dubbed the plans “12 admissions of failure” and a “re-hashing” of previous announcements.
The First Minister had a similar analysis of the policy. She said: “It’s re-hashed money, it’s re-hashed announcements and it’s a pretty desperate attempt by a beleaguered Westminster Government and an utterly discredited Prime Minister to try and divert people’s attention and I think it might take more than that to succeed.”
The First Minister said the white paper was filled with 're-hashed' announcements and cash promises
One of the announcements made ahead of the publication of the document would bring together the heads of the devolved administrations to work together in the same way as the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine.
But the FM said she had not been invited to such a summit. She added: “I don’t know what he means.
“I spoke to Michael Gove on the phone last night, he didn’t ask me to be involved in anything – he told me what he would be announcing today.
“I made the point that as First Minister of Scotland I shouldn’t be getting told about it less than 24 hours before he announced it.”
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She added: “I always welcome extra money for Scotland, but these are issues that are – in the main – the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament and Westminster is, I know, trying to muscle in, to spend money, make decisions over the heads of not just the Scottish Parliament, but the Welsh Parliament, the Northern Irish Parliament as well.
“If the UK Government is genuine about wanting to work together, and I’m very happy to do so, the essential starting point for them is to actually respect the responsibilities of the Scottish Parliament rather than ride roughshod over them – that’s a much better foundation for working together.”
It comes as SNP MP Deidre Brock asked Gove after his statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday what consultation there had been with the Scottish Government regarding the proposals.
He replied: “Yes, I spoke to the First Minister on the phone about it last night.”
And, MP Tommy Sheppard described the plans as “underwhelming” and a “damp squib”.
Sheppard told MPs: “This statement literally has nothing in it for the people that I represent in this house, but we will watch with interest as this con is perpetrated on the people of the north of England.
“Meanwhile, in Scotland, we have another Brexit betrayal. The replacement funds for the EU structural funds are falling 900 million pounds short and control of it is being centralised to Whitehall.
“That is what we are receiving from this Government and that is why more and more people are turning to the option of political independence for their country.”
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Pointing out the UK Government’s “inaction and unwillingness” to do anything to fix the cost of living crisis and spiralling energy bills, Sheppard asked Gove: “Isn’t this just a piece of meaningless window dressing?”
Gove claimed that it was not, adding: “We work in partnership with the Scottish Government and we recognise its devolved responsibilities, but people in Scotland pay their taxes to have two governments working together for them, and that's what we've done.
"The levelling up fund is to ensure that there's been investment in North Ayrshire, in Edinburgh, in Aberdeen, in order to help communities, councils led by Scottish nationalist counsellors, and backed by SNP MPs.”
The Levelling Up Secretary added that he explained to the FM in their phone call that it was “important to work together”.
Gove released the white paper on Wednesday as the PM faced calls to resign
He continued: “But when it comes to inequality, it is the case that the Scottish Government presided over growing inequality in educational outcomes in schools in Scotland. We want to work with them in order to reverse that.
“It's also the case when it comes to devolution that the Scottish Government rather than devolving more powers to local government, in Scotland, as we are doing in England has centralised powers and the conventional Scottish local authorities have been eloquent in complaining about that.”
The White Paper includes 12 national “missions” to be achieved by 2030 which will be enshrined in a Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.
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