SNP Ministers have been accused of “negligence” after it emerged Holyrood would hand back £450million to the European Union after failing to spend the cash on key economic and anti-poverty projects.
Scotland will likely return 28 per cent of the cash allocated from Brussels’ structural and investment funding over the past six years.
Wales is expected to return just nine per cent, with the figure dropping to six per cent in England and two per cent in Northern Ireland.
Edinburgh already coughed up €199million from the funding pot, data compiled by the European Union has revealed.
However, an additional €331million now looks set to return to Brussels bureaucrats.
The announcement comes after new First Minister John Swinney last week described eradicating child poverty as his “single most important objective”.
Scotland’s two largest Unionist parties, Labour and the Tories, were keen to heap the pressure on following the news of more cash going back to Brussels.
Dame Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, blamed the Scottish Government’s “incompetence” for missing out on the EU money.
She told The Times: “Our NHS is in crisis, child poverty is stubbornly high, and economic growth is sluggish — that the SNP Government is handing back half a billion pounds of funding while Scots face crumbling public services and infrastructure is a dereliction of duty and negligence on a remarkable scale.
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Brexiteers were celebrating when Britain officially left the EU in January 2020PA“Vital projects across Scotland are being left high and dry while the SNP allows vital funding to slip away. Scots should not pay the price of SNP incompetence.”
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross added: “This is waste and negligence on an unforgivable scale.
“The SNP have poured half a billion pounds down the drain.
“Their new slogan should be ‘squander for Scotland’.
“This funding could have been spent on vital infrastructure across Scotland, yet SNP incompetence has lost it for good.
John Swinney was sworn in as Scotland’s new First Minister after Humza Yousaf resigned
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“This is up there with the ferries scandal when it comes to the SNP Government wasting taxpayers’ cash.”
The announcement will likely put more strain on SNP support ahead of polls opening on July 4.
The SNP look poised to sustain losses across Scotland, including in the so-called “Central Belt”.
Labour’s Glasgow East candidate John Grady said: “[It’s] money chucked down the drain by the SNP. It’s time for change.”
Sir Keir Starmer is expected to oversee a revival north of the border, with polls consistently suggesting Labour will re-emerge as the largest party.
Sir Keir Starmer is leading a Labour revival in Scotland
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Jeremy Corbyn led Labour to its joint-worst result in Scotland since 1906, returning just one MP in 2019.
The SNP and Tories have both been pencilling in losses, with nationalists expected to lose their grip and Conservatives poised to drop into third.
However, a social media user also pointed out how the wasted cash likely traces its roots back to the UK.
They said: “The UK were net contributers to the EU so it was our own money.”
The UK was a net contributor of £12.6billion in its last full year of membership, with the gross figure rising to £17billion.
John Swinney is facing a tough task ahead of July 4
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While pro-independence, the SNP is supportive of EU membership and Scots decisively voted to stay in the Brussels bloc just two years after rejecting the separatist case for the Union.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “These figures do not reflect the totality of spending to date from the 2014-20 European structural funds programmes.
“Final expenditure figures will not be known until 2025, when the programmes formally close.
“Until then, the Scottish Government intends to maximise reimbursement from the European Commission where possible.
“The use of European Structural Funds is bound by strict conditions and all stakeholders of the programmes are responsible for complying with its regulations.
“Thousands of people, businesses and communities have benefitted from the investment of the 2014-20 funds in Scotland to date.”
