UP to £100m of vital aid will be taken from the North-East as a Government “bribe” to stop Scotland voting for independence, it has been claimed.

The European Union funds – designed to win investment and jobs - have been switched north of the border after a fierce campaign by the Edinburgh parliament.

The Scottish Secretary did little to disguise that the funding boost will be a weapon to help save the Union, when the independence referendum is staged next year.

Michael Moore told Scottish newspapers: “By being in the UK, Scotland has not only got a better EU budget deal - we will also get better funding from Brussels.”

But the price will be paid by parts of England that are much poorer than Scotland, which will collectively lose £665m over six years.

Stephen Hughes, a Labour Euro-MP for the North-East, said this region would lose “up to £100m” of the £300m-odd it had expected to receive.

Mr Hughes said: “This is an attempted bribe, to persuade the people of Scotland that they should vote to stay in the United Kingdom.

“People in the North-East will be justifiably angry that this is going on. It will be bewildering that money will be taken from the North-East and given to Scotland, which is better off."

Downing Street has insisted the decision had “nothing to do with the independence referendum”, which is to be staged on September 18 next year.

But Mr Hughes said: “It adds insult to injury, because Scotland already enjoys incentives to persuade businesses to invest there, which we don’t have in the North-East. It’s unfair.”

The controversy has blown up after European leaders – including David Cameron – agreed a real-terms cut in EU spending, at a summit last month.

As a result, the UK’s allocation of EU structural funds will be slashed, threatening Scotland – because it is richer than the likes of the North-East – with a 32 per cent reduction.

After protests from Edinburgh, the Coalition government has now agreed a five per cent for each of the UK nations, for the 2014-2020 period.

It means Scotland will receive £193m more than if allocations had been based on “need”, in line with EU guidelines – while England will receive £665m less.

Yet, Scotland’s gross value added (GVA) per head currently stands at 98.6 per cent of the UK average, while the North-East languishes at just 75.9 per cent.

The government has been accused of a string of measures favouring Scotland, including:

* Axing the One NorthEast development agency – while Scottish Enterprise survives, able to tempt firms north of the border with lucrative grants.

* Refusing to review the much-criticised Barnett Formula, which delivers much higher public spending to Scotland than to England.

* Picking Edinburgh as the location for the £3bn Green Investment Bank – rejecting numerous bids from England, including from the Tees Valley.

The North-East was pledged £330m of structural funds between 2007 and 2013, although – because the UK must provide matched funding – not all the cash has been spent.

The grants part-funded NETPark at Sedgefield, County Durham, the Tees Valley Industrial Programme and the Innovation Accelerator project, at the Wilton Centre, near Redcar.

Announcing the five per cent across-the-board cuts, Mr Moore pointed out that an independent Scotland would have had no choice but to accept the 32 per cent loss.

He said: “By sharing the cut in EU structural funds across the UK, the Government is protecting Scotland from the big cut we would otherwise receive.

“Scotland will now get £193m more than it would if the EU funding formula was applied directly.”