Statement by South Belfast and Mid Down TUV candidate Dan Boucher:
“One of the key jobs of MPs is to ensure that Stormont receives adequate funding for health, education and other public services.
Over the years Northern Ireland has been funded generously by the UK Government but that has not been the case since 2020 and for the two financial years of the last Parliament 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, Northern Ireland was actually funded £3 below the UK Government’s own definition of need.
“In 2012 the UK Government adopted a UK definition of need called the Holtham Formula when it announced that it would never again allow Block Grant funding to Wales to fall below the UK definition of need as set out by that formula.
“In 2016, when Government spending in Wales was still above need, the UK Government announced that it would start providing Wales with additional funding called the ‘uplift’ which has, over the last eight years, provided an extra cushion keeping monies going to Wales comfortably above need.
“During the period of the application of the uplift to date – from 2018 to the present – it has so far been worth in the region of an additional £1.17 billion. In this context, the last Treasury Block Grant Transparency document demonstrated that funding to Wales was £5 above need.
“As things currently stand the UK Government has agreed to intervene to fund Northern Ireland to need (not above need), as defined by its own Holtham Formula for this financial year and the next financial year through the provision of additional monies on a one-off basis.
“After this, the projection is that funding to Northern Ireland will once again plummet below need again in 2026-27.
“This is intolerable.
“The UK Government cannot have a UK definition of need and apply it to Wales, with an additional uplift that has kept Welsh funding in the region of £5 above need for eight years, while it funds Northern Ireland £3 below need for two years, then bringing funding back to need for two years on a temporary basis but willingly countenancing the possibility of funding Northern Ireland below its own definition of need thereafter.
One of the key responsibilities of Northern Ireland MPs for the new Parliament will be to secure a Holtham based deal for Northern Ireland with an uplift, just as Welsh MPs secured for Wales.
“One of the key qualifications of the new MPs, therefore, will be understanding the UK Government definition of need, the Holtham Formula. They will then need to be able to call out our underfunding just as effectively as they can call out our disenfranchisement.
Equal citizenship means having the right to stand for election to make all the laws to which we are subject and being afforded the same courtesy as the rest of the UK in never being funded below the UK definition of need.
“If we are to enjoy the increased funding urgently required forhealth and education, Northern Ireland requires competent Members of Parliament who understand these issues, can argue with authority and not have rings run around them by the Treasury, the NIO and Downing Street.
“To get financially competent MPs who can really stand up for you, our NHS and education service, vote TUV on 4 July.”