THE Scotland Office has confirmed it will seek to recover from the Scottish Government the expenses it incurred in the legal battle over Scotland’s shelved transgender law reforms.
Clearly hoping to keep up his run of good fortune in fighting the Scottish Government, Alister Jack now wants to claw back the money his department spent blocking the legislation.
He argued the Scottish Government “chose to pursue this litigation in spite of the cost to the taxpayer”, which rather glosses over the UK Government picking the fight in the first place by blocking the Gender Recognition Reform Act.
STV has reported the total cost of the legal bill as coming to £150,000 – a pretty measly amount for another round of constitutional squabbling.
Speaking of money, the UK Government also announced another round of devolution-busting Levelling Up funding this week – with Scotland given no say in how the cash is spent.
The Scottish Government has again complained about the lack of consultation on £8 million being spent on projects across the country.
It’s slightly awkward for many politicians to oppose the funding publicly. It will often be well-received by their constituents, the majority of whom are likely unbothered about the constitutional intricacies of how money is being invested in their communities.
READ MORE: New devolution-busting funding announced as Scotland denied say on £8m pot
So it’s a little telling that Edinburgh’s response to the announcement on Thursday came from a generic spokesperson, rather than a minister.
They said: “It is extremely disappointing that the Scottish Government continues to be excluded from the decision-making process, with limited ability to influence how the investment could be prioritised to complement its ongoing work.”
And Rishi Sunak’s progress on delivering his “five pledges” met a major setback after it emerged the economy was at risk of sliding into a recession.
Official figures showed gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.1%.
Richard Carter, head of fixed interest research at wealth management firm Quilter Cheviot, chimed in with some warm festive words to see us into the new year.
He said: “Growth is weakening and interest rates are really beginning to bite, and while a recession has just been avoided to date, there is no guarantee one will be avoided in 2024.”
This is our last newsletter of a crazy year, so have a very merry Christmas from us at the Worst of Westminster and we look forward to continue bringing you all the very worst of what they’re up to down there in the new year.
You can get the Worst of Westminster delivered straight to your inbox every Friday at 6pm for FREE by clicking here.
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