As the Conservative leadership race reaches its final stages, the two remaining candidates, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, attended the Cardiff hustings on 6th July to make their case to the party membership, for who should be the next leader.

When asked about whether or not the Brexit campaign promise that Wales would ‘not be a penny worse off’ would be honoured, current front-runner Boris Johnson said: “I can give that categorical reassurance that the shared prosperity fund will continue. There will be the full allocation of funds for Wales.

“I think there may be some question about how exactly that money is dispensed, by whom and I would want to make sure that there was a strong Conservative influence on the expenditure of that £350 million, or whatever the sum is,” he added.

The ‘shared prosperity fund’ which aims to replace the structural funding Wales has received from the European Union once the United Kingdom has withdrawn its membership, has been discussed on the floor of the Welsh Government in recent weeks.

The Welsh Government has strongly opposed the idea of the administration of the fund from Westminster since it could apply restrictive conditions on how that money is spend, without Wales having the deciding say.

Monmouth Assembly Member Nick Ramsay said: “I would also like to see more of a Conservative influence on the way money in Wales is spent but I think we need to respect the current settlement and work on building up that influence within the Assembly itself.

“At the end of the day, the people of Wales and Monmouthshire were promised they would ‘not be a penny worse off’ following Brexit and that commitment should be honoured without delay.”

After the UK leaves the European Union, it will no longer receive structural funding, which is worth about €2.4 billion per year according to the European Commission. Previous concerns have been raised by first minister Mark Drakeford and others about whether or not the shared prosperity fund is an attempt to row back the powers of devolution through the back door.