Sinn Féin MP John Finucane has said the British government’s so-called ‘Levelling Up fund’ is a power grab aimed at further undermining local democracy.

Speaking after adverts appeared in newspapers today, the North Belfast MP said:

“Claims by the British government in newspaper adverts today that they ‘are giving power back to the local community’ are misleading and patent nonsense.

“In reality, this is nothing more than a power grab by the Tories.

“They are taking decisions over the heads of locally elected ministers and undermining the people who elect them.

“No one seriously believes that a Tory government that has fed inequality, implemented cruel austerity policies and cut public services for over a decade has any interest in levelling up anything.

“This scheme should have been implemented through ministers elected on the island of Ireland, not by Boris Johnson’s ministers who haven’t got a single vote here.

“This continual impingement and interference on devolved arrangement cannot continue. The moves being made by the Tories to relocate civil servants to Belfast later this year smacks of a power grab by London. The same approach has been applied to Scotland and Wales with repeated attempts to undermine the autonomy of the devolved regions.”