United Kingdom

PM 'wasted £1m on Scotland-Northern Ireland bridge PR stunt'

Boris Johnson has been accused of wasting £900,000 on a "PR stunt" plan to build a road bridge or tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Figures released by the UK Department for Transport show that nearly £1 million of public money was spent on what opposition parties had described as "something dreamed up at 2am at a Downing St party".

Commenting on the revelation that £900,000 was spent on the feasibility of a connection, SNP MP Mhairi Black said: "We knew from the beginning this wouldn't happen, and now it has been revealed that the UK government wasted close to £1 million of taxpayers' money on a feasibility study on its unworkable, doomed from the get-go idea.

"This just goes to show the Tories’'warped spending priorities. How many lateral flow tests could this have bought, or nurses salaries paid, or PPE purchased for those on the frontline in this pandemic?

"However, as daft as this idea was, it still promised to put £20 billion of investment into the Scottish and Northern Irish economies. The Prime Minister must honour the spending commitments he made and deliver that money to Scotland and Northern Ireland so they can use it for worthwhile infrastructure proposals."

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/scotland-bridge-northern-ireland-boris/