Region robbed of vital funding

Nevertheless, embarrassing as the designation is, it is a glaring indication of how hard certain areas of South Yorkshire have struggled to establish a post-industrial future following the decline of the coal and steel industries.

The fact that these areas are still recovering from this double blow more than 20 years later makes it even more difficult to accept that the Government has apparently unilaterally decided that enough is enough, that a significant segment of South Yorkshire’s EU structural funds should be re-allocated elsewhere in what it believes is the greater cause of placating Scottish nationalism.

Ministers deny that South Yorkshire will miss out on more than £100m, but the very fact that they seem uncertain of what effects their re-allocation will have demonstrates the recklessness of this desperate attempt to convince Scottish voters, ahead of next year’s independence referendum, that they are better off as part of the United Kingdom.

Indeed, considering that Ministers are also under pressure to give a larger share of the money to Conservative councils in the South, it seems that Yorkshire is in danger of being squeezed on two fronts in the cause of political expediency.

But if this is the case, it is not merely damaging to this region, it is also short-sighted politics. For, if the Conservatives are to get any sort of meaningful majority at the next election, it will not be achieved by attempting to buy off potential UK Independence Party voters in the South or by throwing money at the Scots.

A better showing for the Tories in the key marginals of Yorkshire and the North would have won David Cameron a majority in 2010. But that prize will not be on the table in 2015 if the voters of this region believe they have been let down and betrayed by grossly unfair funding decisions.