Tory leadership latest: I won’t ‘ignore’ Sturgeon – I’ll take her on and beat SNP, vows Rishi Sunak

Mr Sunak is asked about the general belief money sent from Westminster does not go where it is meant to, and if he plans to investigation.

“You’re absolutely right, and I tell you why this was so frustrating to me. In the middle of the pandemic whenever I was engaging with Scottish media or civil society… The number of people who seemed to think furlough was because of Nicola Sturgeon.

“I did a spending review for the UK which sent £4.5bn of Barnett to the Scottish government and then Kate Forbes finally stood up and did her spending review and we were finally able to see the decisions they made.

“In contrast to what we were doing elsewhere public spending on the NHS in Scotland is growing a vastly lower rate than what it is on England. Then look at the rest of the public sector, agriculture, education, justice, local government. She’s imposed austerity on all those parts of public services and yes, I have put an income tax in.

“That’s in and I have given the Scottish government money to do that and they’ve not passed that on. We found out where it’s going. You know where it’s going? The welfare budget in Scotland is increasing by 50 per cent in the next five years. That is wrong, right? We are a party that believes in working hard.”

Would he bypass Scotland with a spending review? “We’ve already started that.”