David Cameron faces Tory ‘bloodbath’ over ‘unfair’ cash for Scotland

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According to a report By The Telegraph (Link) :- “David Cameron faces a “bloodbath” at the hands of Tory MPs after all three parties pledged to continue high levels of funding for Scotland if it rejects independence.

The Prime Minister is facing mounting dissent among English backbenchers after promising that Scotland’s special funding arrangements will continue even when the country is given control over its own taxation and spending.

One Tory MP said the promise to Scottish voters, issued by Mr Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg in the Daily Record newspaper, “smacks of desperation”.

Under the Barnett formula, devised in the 1970s by Labour Treasury minister Lord Barnett, spending is allocated according to population size, rather than the amount each country actually needs.

Critics say this gives Scotland an unfair share of government spending and even Lord Barnett has called for it to be replaced.

 According to research at Stirling University, England loses around £4.5 billion of public spending every year because the money is handed to Scotland instead

Tory MPs are preparing to publicly savage David Cameron’s handling of the referendum in the event of a No vote, and will attempt to block the plans.

One female Tory MP said Mr Cameron’s promise, issued just two days before the polls open, was “desperate”.

“There will be a bloodbath. Last night as I was listening to Cameron saying we are going to be providing all these additional benefits to Scotland, when we are struggling in so many areas of the UK.

“It’s all happening on the hoof, in cliquey conversations on telephones in Downing Street. It isn’t happening, and there are a number of us who are incensed who will make sure it isn’t going to happen. But let’s see what the results are first.”

Mr Cameron’s campaign speech yesterday in which he reassured Scots that he would not be Prime Minister for ever has been met with scorn in some quarters.

“Cameron said ‘I won’t be here for ever.’ It just smacks of desperation to me – a man who is trying to get his wife to stay. It’s just desperate.”

Bernard Jenkin, the chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee and one of the Prime Minister’s most vocal backbench critics, today said the plans to grant Scotland fiscal autonomy would mean no Scottish MP could become Chancellor.

“We could never have a Scottish UK chancellor setting English taxes in England at the annual budget but not in his or her own constituency. So Parliament will have to consider how to establish an English executive, with an English first minister and finance minister,” he said in a letter to The Times.

Another senior Tory said it would be “easier if Scotland votes for independence” because it would resolve what role Scottish MPs should have in Parliament and Government.

“Whatever the outcome on the day, there are significant constitutional implications. If it’s a No vote, having seen the promise of Devo Max it’s absolutely essential that there is a new settlement for England,” the Tory said.

A spokesman for Yes Scotland said: “It’s clear that project panic is willing to say anything in the last few days of the campaign to try to halt the Yes momentum – anything except what new powers, if any, they might be willing to offer.

“The reality is that the only way to guarantee Scotland gets all the powers we need to create jobs and protect our NHS is with a Yes vote on Thursday – so that we can use our enormous wealth to create a better and fairer country.”

 

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