Rishi Sunak rejected claims the allocation of more than £2.1bn in “levelling up” money for was skewed unfairly towards affluent areas – including his own constituency.
The prime minister is “absolutely not” embarrassed that the military town of Catterick Garrison in his own wealthy Richmond constituency has benefited from £19m of funding, No 10 said.
ToryMPs in “red wall” seats in the north of England have shared their frustration over the funding, after it emerged that the south east will be given more than the north east, Yorkshire and the West Midlands.
“People are apoplectic,” one Tory MP told The Times. “There are some really wealthy areas on the list. It looks awful. It’s gone down terribly among red wall MPs.”
Of the 80 successful projects in England from the latest round of funding, only around half are thought to be in the 100 most deprived areas of the country.
Analysis also showed that 52 Tory constituencies in England benefit – more than twice as many as those represented by Labour MPs.
But Mr Sunak denied the levelling up fund is an example of “pork barrel politics” for Tory seats. And he insisted that two thirds of the overall money allocated from the levelling up fund is going to the “most deprived parts of our country”.
Asked about money for the garrison in his own constituency, Mr Sunak said it was “home to actually thousands of serving personnel who are often away from their own families serving our country”.
The PM added: “It’s important that they have access to a town centre providing the amenities they need – that’s what that funding is going to deliver. I’m delighted that this investment will support them.”
Asked if Mr Sunak was embarrassed, the PM’s official spokesman said: “No, absolutely not. I don’t think anyone would be embarrassed by our armed service personnel having money invested into areas where they live … that would be ludicrous.”
Labour analysis shows that the south-east (£210m) was given nearly twice as much as the north-east (£108m), and got more than Yorkshire (£121m) and West Midlands (£155m).
Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy said the fund was a “Hunger Games-style contest” which only offered a partial refund for resources stripped out of communities by austerity.
She added: “The levelling up fund is in chaos, beset by delays and allegations of favouritism – 15 months after the first round of allocations, just 5 per cent of the money has made it to the communities who were promised it,” she said.
Levelling up secretary Michael Gove said it was “simply untrue” that the latest round of taxpayers’ cash is mainly being handed to the relatively affluent southeast.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that London and the southeast together constitute a quarter of the country’s population, but that per capita “the biggest winners are those in the north west”.
Concerns over favouritism were sparked by leaked footage of Mr Sunak at a party in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, boasting about how he had channelled funding away from “deprived urban areas” to “make sure areas like this are getting the funding they deserve”.
But Mr Gove said he did not think it was “quite right” to infer a tilt away from funding for the north from Mr Sunak’s comments, arguing he was simply pointing out that areas in the south east also need investment.
Rishi Sunak speaks during a Q&A session in Morecambe
Boris Johnson – who had launched levelling up agenda to help deprived communities outside the “overheated” south east – is keen to make sure his successor carries on with the agenda.
Asked about Mr Johnson’s desire to address the north-south divide, Mr Sunak insisted that the latest round of funding was “disproportionately” benefiting people in the north per head of population. “And that’s great.”
Henri Murison, director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership group, said the money given to the north was “a long way off the radical economic transformation we were promised”. He added that it would “not make a material difference to closing the north-south divide in productivity overall”.
Several Tory MPs also expressed disappointment in the Commons that projects in their areas did not receive money. Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie said she was “extremely disappointed” and Keighley MP Robbie Moore said it was “incredibly disappointing” after their areas missed out.
Mr Sunak – who is also under pressure from the Tory right to cut taxes – told a Q&A audience in Morecambe they understand why he cannot cut tax immediately because they are “not idiots”.
“I’m a Conservative, I want to cut your taxes … I wish I could do that tomorrow, quite frankly, but the reason we can’t is because of all the reasons you know. You’re not idiots,” he said – pointing to Covid costs and the Ukraine war.
Vowing to “get a grip” of inflation, he added: “Trust me, that’s what I’m going to do for you this year, that’s what we’re going to do while I’m prime minister and if we do those things we will be able to cut your taxes,” he added.
Earlier, Mr Sunak and Mr Gove spoke to people involved with the Eden Project in Morecambe after the funding announcement on Thursday. One passer-by shouted: “Lend us 20 quid for my heating bill, Rishi” during a walkabout on the site of the project.
No 10 denied reports that some Tory MPs in red wall seats had been told to stop using the phrase “levelling up” and talk instead about “enhancing communities”. Asked if levelling up was being quitely ditched, Mr Sunak’s press secretary said: “Quite the opposite.”
A regional breakdown of the levelling up funding shows:
– Yorkshire and the Humber: £120,619,162
– West Midlands: £155,579,834
– Wales: £208,175,566
– South West: £186,663,673
– South East: £210,467,526
– Scotland: £177,206,114
– Northern Ireland: £71,072,373
– North West: £354,027,146
– North East: £108,548,482
– London: £151,266,674
– East Midlands: £176,870,348
– East: £165,903,400
