MP fights subsidies to Scots

WARRINGTON South MP David Mowat is taking a leading role in a campaign to reform the controversial Barnett Forumula which results in taxpayers in England subsidising services in Scotland.
Mr Mowat (pictured) took part in a BBC Radio 5 Live programme last night (Tuesday) to discuss the formula and has been quoted in several critical articles in national newspapers.
New figures show that the average family in England is having to pay an additional £420 a year in tax to pay for services that Scots receive for free such as free prescriptions, free personal care for the elderly and free university tuition.
Mr Mowat – a long-standing critic of the formula – said: “I’m delighted that this issue is now receiving the national attention it deserves. I’ve been saying for over a year now that people in Warrington are getting a raw deal and now it seems that more and more people are starting to realise just how unfair the current system is.
“My work on the Scottish Affairs Select Committee has highlighted a number of examples of people in Warrington suffering because of the Barnett formula.
“The new Runcorn Bridge will have to be tolled, yet the Government have bent over backwards to help the Scottish Government avoid a similar toll.
“We simply cannot continue with the failed policy of the last Labour Government.”
The Barnett Formula was devised in the 1970s by Lord Barnett – the former Joel Barnett – as a means of allocating additional or reduced finance based on population as a short-term solution to a number of minor disputes in the run-up to devolution in 1979. It has continued to be used by both Labour and Conservative governments.
But it has been criticised in recent times – and even Lord Barnett himself has called for a review of its long term vilability.