Dismay at £3m "short-change" for Angus

Mr Dey’s criticism was aimed at the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund. It was announced recently that communities across the UK will benefit from £2.6 billion of funding being allocated to help spread opportunity and “level up” the country.

He said that following Brexit the UK Government promised to replace all of the money Scotland previously received from the European Union, estimated at £183 million for this year.

Recent figures have shown, however, show that Scotland will receive £32million this year, £151 million short of the £183 million promised which works out at an estimated equivalent of nearly £3.2 million for Angus.

Mr Dey said: “Not only did the people of Angus not vote for Brexit, we are paying a very high price for this disastrous Tory obsession.

“EU funding has supported infrastructure projects and community initiatives across the country since the 1970s, with Scotland receiving and delivering more than £6 billion of EU Structural Funds.

“Being short-changed again by the Tories, this time to the equivalent of nearly £3.2 million, really adds insult to injury for the people of Angus.

“This demonstrates exactly why the Tories’ sick joke of ‘levelling up’ actually means our community losing out, with Angus facing the estimated loss of nearly £3.2 million had Scotland not been taken out of the EU against our will.

“Not only that, the Scottish Government previously made decisions about how best to spend the EU money based on local priorities.

"Now a UK Tory Government is cutting Scotland’s elected Government out of the decision-making process.

"That is both a betrayal of democracy and a disgrace that money will be spent on Tory priorities which will fail to meet the needs of communities in Angus.

“This is yet another shocking demonstration why the Tories cannot be trusted with Scotland’s future.

“By voting SNP in the local elections on May the people of Scotland will send a crystal clear message to Johnson’s Tories that they will never be trusted.”