Oral Answers to Questions

Alyn Smith Excerpts

Monday 20th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Neale Hanvey (Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath) (SNP)]

What recent discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on the shared prosperity fund.

[Alyn Smith (Stirling) (SNP)]

What recent discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on the shared prosperity fund.

[Stephen Flynn (Aberdeen South) (SNP)]

What recent discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on the shared prosperity fund.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Clarke]

The 2019 Conservative party manifesto committed at a minimum to matching the size of EU structural funds in each nation. It is very important that we get these decisions right. This is, after all, an enormous sum of money—our money—sent formally to the EU and then top-sliced and sent back to us with conditions. I very much look forward to controlling it for ourselves.

[Alyn Smith]

It is not just the Scottish Government who are looking for clarity on this. Just last week, the Institute for Fiscal Studies published a report that said that, four years after the Brexit vote, it is “high time” we had some idea of where the Government are going. Does the Minister agree with me, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Northern Ireland Assembly Government that it is high time we had clarity on these schemes?

[Mr Clarke]

It is obviously importantly that we provide that clarity—I wholly agree with the hon. Gentleman—and we are going to provide that clarity after the cross-government spending review in the autumn.