Humza Yousaf demands more money for Scotland in wake of Northern Ireland deal

Scotland has demanded more money after Rishi Sunak gave Northern Ireland £3.3 billion to restore its devolved government.

The package is part of the Government’s deal with the DUP to end its two-year boycott of Stormont over post-Brexit trading arrangements.

The Northern Ireland Assembly could be restored as soon as Saturday after MPs nodded through Westminster legislation guaranteeing the region’s place in the UK on Thursday.

Speaking at First Minister’s Questions in Holyrood on Thursday, Humza Yousaf welcomed the news but added his deputy had inquired about what the £3.3 billion would mean for Scotland.

“There was a £3.3 billion package offered by the Secretary of State (Chris Heaton-Harris) to address public spending and for pay pressures in Northern Ireland, which I have to say is welcome,” the First Minister said.

“These pressures exist in Scotland and I suspect they exist in Wales too, so I know that the deputy first minister has raised with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, as did her Welsh counterpart, that the devolved governments should be treated fairly in line with the Barnett formula.”

The Barnett formula is used by the UK Treasury to calculate the annual block grants for the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments.

A UK government spokesman said Northern Ireland faced “unique and immediate challenges” because it had “been without a functioning devolved government for a significant period of time”.

“The Scottish Government has a separate fiscal framework agreed in 2023 and is well funded to deliver on its devolved responsibilities through the record £41 billion per year it receives,” he added.

Last month, about 170,000 public sector workers downed tools in Northern Ireland’s largest strike in recent history. They demanded the first pay rise in a couple of years to help deal with the cost of living crisis and rising inflation.

The £3.3 billion package includes £584 million to settle public sector pay claims.

It was announced in December but is conditional on the DUP returning to power-sharing, which will make Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill the first nationalist first minister of Northern Ireland.

In February 2022, the DUP walked out of Stormont in protest at the Irish Sea border, which introduced checks on British goods entering Northern Ireland.

It was created to prevent a hard land border with EU member Ireland after Brexit, which it was feared could reignite The Troubles, but the DUP believed it jeopardised Ulster’s place in the UK.

The new deal rebrands the arrangements as the “UK Internal Market System”, and promises to end routine checks, which will require EU consent.

Fast-tracked legislation to “safeguard and durably strengthen” Northern Ireland’s place in the UK market was approved by MPs on Thursday, paving the way for a return to Stormont.