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Editor defends minister over national paper claims

A newspaper editor has leapt to the defence of a government minister who was accused by a national newspaper of using his position to increase spending in his constituency.

The Financial Times published an article last week in which it claimed Treasury chief secretary Danny Alexander had helped ensure his Highland constituency had benefited from tens of millions of pounds’ worth of government help since he became chief secretary.

But the bi-weekly Inverness Courier has defended its local MP and said that the funding allocated to the Highlands was not out of proportion to the benefits received by other comparable rural areas, which were “usually at the back of the queue for government spending”.

Editor Robert Taylor wrote a leader column in response to the FT article, saying that Mr Alexander had been elected by voters to benefit his constituency.

He wrote: “The article, by the paper’s political correspondent, set out to prove that local MP Danny Alexander was using his position within government to ‘protect his own backyard’ and went on to list a series of measures that have benefited his Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency.

“These include funding for the Cairngorm funicular railway, a ‘bailout’ for the London to Inverness sleeper service, a ‘generous’ allocation to Highland Council to help tenants hit by the bedroom tax and a proposed extension of the scheme to reduce the cost of fuel in remote rural areas.

“To deal with the main charge first, is Mr Alexander using his position at the heart of government to benefit his constituency? The answer is probably yes and, furthermore, that is what voters put him there to do.

“Surely that is what every voter in every constituency expects their MP to try and achieve, first and foremost. The more powerful the politician, the more he can get done.”

The FT highlighted how in recent weeks, Highland Council received the largest share of a funding pot aimed at rural authorities to allow it to exempt some residents from the ‘bedroom tax’ and Mr Alexander also said he wanted to extend a fuel rebate scheme to include remote inland areas including the Highlands.

Robert went on to stress that he did not believe the benefits given to the Highlands were out of proportion, saying that rural areas lacked many of the services that city dwellers took for granted.

He wrote: “The paper also begrudges the recently introduced tax breaks benefiting ski lift operators and the Cairngorm Funicular. These cost taxpayers a miniscule amount yet help the economies of fragile communities.

“Contrast that with the billions of pounds of public money poured into rescuing the banks and benefiting FT readers in the City of London who got us into this mess in the first place.

“We have no political axe to grind and favour no party or politician. But the FT’s attack on Mr Alexander only holds water if the benefits flowing to Inverness are disproportionate and undeserved, and that is clearly not the case.

“The Highlands and other rural areas across the UK are usually at the back of the queue for government spending and lack many of the basic services that city dwellers, and particularly those in London, take for granted.”