Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Gove Excerpts

Monday 17th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Clarke]

I can absolutely defend our record on levelling up. There is a £4.8 billion levelling-up fund, which is transforming opportunities across this country. The hon. Member need only look at the response of communities across the north-west to our manifesto in 2019, when we were joined on the Government side of the House by so many fantastic colleagues from that region, to see that people buy into that vision.

[Michael Gove (Surrey Heath) (Con)]

When the Secretary of State launched the levelling-up fund, it was denounced by the Scottish nationalist Government in Holyrood as a “power grab.” Now, of course, SNP MPs and SNP councils are only too eager to apply to benefit from the levelling-up fund. What conclusions does my right hon. Friend draw from the vast divergence between the rhetoric of Nicola Sturgeon and the reality of SNP MPs wanting all the financial benefits of being in the United Kingdom?

[Mr Clarke]

This is a fitting opportunity to pay tribute to my right hon. Friend for all his work in this Department. He is a fantastic champion of not only levelling up but the Union as well. As he rightly says, on this day of all days, when Nicola Sturgeon is bringing forward her vision, it is particularly ironic that we hear so much about the strength of the Union and the support it offers to communities across Scotland, to the benefit of SNP Members’ constituents.