Robin Swann

When I look to the Northern Ireland-specific page and a bit in the Red Book, and remove any paragraphs that refer to funding or programmes that have already been committed to by this Government, there are actually only a couple of paragraphs left. So far down is the Northern Ireland Office in the pecking order at the Cabinet table that there was not even anything in the Budget for Northern Ireland that was worthy of a leak. The Chancellor’s statement on Wednesday said that Northern Ireland would receive £370 million, but let us be clear: despite the Northern Ireland Office’s puff piece on the impact of the Budget on business and public services, explaining how lucky we are in Northern Ireland to receive a Barnett consequential, the figure breaks down to just £18 million this year. We have even seen a Northern Ireland Office Minister on social media singing the praises of investment in Northern Ireland from the Government’s Innovate UK fund. That investment was welcome, but it was delivered in 2023. The Chancellor said in her statement last week that Scotland was getting £820 million because the leader of the Scottish Labour party asked for it—I think that was repeated by the hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine). My question to the Government is this: have Northern Ireland businesses not asked for recognition of the challenges that they face due to the impact of this Government? Alan Lowry of the Federation of Small Businesses in Northern Ireland said that the £16.6 million that has been given for the internal market package “will not be a quick fix, but by acknowledging that there is a problem in the first place means that we can work together to address it.” It is good that the Government have finally acknowledged that the Windsor framework is an issue, but on other issues, such as veterinary medicine, they continue to ignore the impact of divergence.