RISHI Sunak was blasted for spending £29 million on a festival of Brexit “while weans go hungry at home and abroad”.

Details of the funding for Festival UK 2022 – launched by Theresa May in 2018 at the height of Brexit talks – were announced as part of the Chancellor’s spending review.

However, Sunak also revealed that the UK Government was slashing its overseas aid budget and introducing a public sector pay freeze.

In a statement to the Commons, the Chancellor said the priority of the review, which sets out public spending for the next year, was “to protect peoples lives and livelihoods.”

He told MPs: “Our health emergency is not yet over, and our economic emergency has only just begun.

The Chancellor revealed that the Office for Budget Responsibility had forecast that the economy will “contract this year by 11.3%”.

That’s the largest fall in output since the Great Frost of 1709 when much of Europe was hit by a cold winter.

Even with growth returning in the years following, Sunak said the economic output would not be expected to return to pre-crisis levels “until the fourth quarter of 2022”.

The economic damage would, he added, be long-lasting.

“Long-term scarring means, in 2025, the economy will be around 3% smaller than expected in the March Budget,” he said.

The UK’s budget deficit this year is set to reach £394 billion or 19% of GDP – the highest level in peacetime.

Borrowing will remain at £164bn next year and remains at about £100bn for the forecast’s remainder.

Sunak also warned that unemployment is predicted to rise to a peak of 7.5% – or 2.6m people – in the second quarter of 2021.

The Chancellor announced a public sector pay freeze, saying he could not “justify a significant, across-the-board” pay increase. This will directly impact thousands of UK Government civil servants in Scotland.

However, public-sector workers earning less than £24,000 will be guaranteed a pay rise of £250. Nurses, doctors and other NHS workers will also be given a pay rise.

Meanwhile, the national living wage will rise by 2.2% to £8.91 an hour – though it had been expected to increase to £9.21,

Sunak also announced plans for greater investment in infrastructure, totalling around £100bn next year.

READ MORE: George Kerevan: What we learned from Rishi Sunak's Spending Review

He unveiled plans for a new infrastructure bank, to be headquartered in the north of England.

Sunak also announced a new “levelling up” fund worth £4bn – roughly the same amount saved by the cut to overseas aid.

Areas will be able to bid directly for projects that can be delivered during this parliament.

The Chancellor said that it could be used for new bypasses, libraries or museums.

Sunak said the spending review would deliver “stronger public services, paying for new schools, better schools and safer streets, and it delivers a once-in-a-generation investment in infrastructure, creating jobs, growing the economy and increasing pride in the places we call home.”

On Tuesday night, the Chancellor shared photos of himself on social media – wearing a hoody – while supposedly preparing the review.

Responding for the SNP, Alison Thewliss told MPs Sunak should spend less time working on his personal brand.

She said: “The Spending Review is an important opportunity and an important test and instead of pausing for photographs in his favourite hoodie the Chancellor should have been listening to those who are struggling.

“£29m for a festival of Brexit while weans go hungry at home and abroad just about sums this tawdry government up.

“Reneging on the 0.7% aid commitment while the world struggles in a Covid pandemic is just cruel.”

Thewliss also called on Sunak to announce “a real living wage – £9.50 an hour as set by the Living Wage Foundation – not his ‘pretendy’ living wage”.

Replying to the SNP, Sunak said: “She asked about my favourite hoodie, I can tell her it is not the one in the picture, but actually the Kickstart hoodie that was given to me by (Therese Coffey) that I wear with pride.”

Labour’s shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, criticised the public sector pay freeze.

She said: “Earlier this year the chancellor stood on his doorstep and clapped for key workers.

“Today, his government institutes a pay freeze for many of them. This takes a sledgehammer to consumer confidence.”