Liverpool has been overlooked for investment because of the city's "fractious relationship" with the Tories, Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram has suggested.
Mr Rotheram pointed to a number of bids for levelling up cash and bus funding being rejected, saying if they had been put forward in places like Oxford and Cambridge they would have been approved.
Earlier this month, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove was accused of short-changing the Liverpool City Region with the post-Brexit 'shared prosperity fund'.
READ MORE: £52m post-Brexit fund salt in the wound for City Region
Around £52million will come to the city, but under previous funding models the region received £80million.
And there was anger earlier this year, as the city saw a £600million bid for bus improvements rejected - instead being handed £12million.
Mr Rotheram, speaking to the ECHO an event in Parliament, said: "I think if you have a look at the distribution methodology, then you'd have to question why areas that are obviously not as affluent as others are getting less money.
"Whether that's some sort of legacy of the fractious relationship Liverpool and the city region have had with central government, you'd best ask government.
"But what I do know is that we put forward genuinely good bids, because the government told us they were good bids and they haven't been successful.
"The only thing that I can think in regards to the way funding has been distributed is the political persuasion of the individual associated with that funding."
He added: "We've asked them, we've said, what was it about the bid? They can't answer, they can't tell us where there was a shortcoming."
Mr Rotheram pointed to Huyton, which is on the Government's levelling up priority list.
"They had three bids from a Knowsley Council, all of which got zero pounds and zero pence whilst the likes of Sajid Javid's constituency got £147 per head", he said.
"You have to ask yourself, why would that be?"
The comments came as Mr Rotheram unveiled of a multi-billion pound plan to turn the Liverpool City Region into the country’s ‘innovation powerhouse’.
At a meeting in Parliament, Mr Rotheram detailed how the City Region has the potential to generate over £40bn for its local economy through a number of key investments.
The launch was part of a wider strategy to bolster the city region’s investment in research and development (R&D), with the Metro Mayor hoping this will be done at double the national rate at 5% GVA by 2030.
According to the Combined Authority, if successful, an estimated £41.7bn could be added to the city region economy and create 44,000 jobs.
