It may have lost him the byelection, but Nigel Farage has a point about Scottish spending, writes Paul Ormerod

Last week, Nigel Farage created a bit of a storm north of the border when he suggested that the longstanding formula for calculating how much Scotland receives from the UK Treasury needed “looking at”.

Some commentators ascribed Reform’s failure to capture the Hamilton seat in the Scottish Parliament byelection held last Thursday, albeit narrowly, to his statement.

Regardless of the result in Hamilton, the way in which public expenditure is funded in Scotland is a matter of concern.

The Barnett formula: How Scotland public funding works

The latest year for which we have official data is 2023/24, a year in which the Scottish government spent 10.4 per cent more than Scotland generated in taxation. The deficit is funded courtesy of the taxpayers of England, and in particular those of London and the South East.

The comparable figure for the UK was 4.8 per cent, which in cash terms was........

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