Rishi Sunak rejected claims that the allocation of more than £2.1bn in levelling-up money was unfairly skewed towards affluent areas – including his own North Yorkshire constituency.
The prime minister is “absolutely not” embarrassed that the military town of Catterick Garrison, in his wealthy Richmond seat, has benefited from £19m of funding, Downing Street said.
Tory MPs in red-wall seats in the North of England and the Midlands shared their frustration over the latest funding announcement, after it emerged that the South East would be given more than the North East, Yorkshire and the West Midlands.
Some MPs were said to be “apoplectic” that affluent areas in the South were on the list, while Andy Street, the influential Tory mayor for the West Midlands, lashed out at the latest round of funding, saying it proved that the government’s “bidding and begging-bowl culture is broken”.
Of the 80 projects in England to benefit from the latest round of funding, only around half are thought to be in the 100 most deprived areas of the country. Analysis also shows that 52 Tory constituencies in England will benefit – more than twice as many as those represented by Labour MPs.
Mr Sunak denied that the levelling up fund was an example of “pork barrel politics”, and insisted that the North of England had gained the most per head of population. The PM also claimed that two-thirds of the overall money allocated from the levelling up fund was going to the “most deprived parts of our country”.
Asked about money for the garrison town 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”, adding: “I’m delighted that this investment will support them.”
Asked if Mr Sunak was embarrassed, his official spokesperson 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 was given nearly twice as much (£210m) as the North East (£108m), and was allocated more than Yorkshire (£121m) or the West Midlands (£155m).
Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy said the fund was “in chaos” and had become a “Hunger Games-style contest” that only offers a partial payback for resources stripped out of communities by austerity.
Levelling up secretary Michael Gove said it was “simply untrue” that the latest round of taxpayers’ cash was mainly being handed to the relatively affluent South East.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that London and the South East 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 last year by 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”.
Boris Johnson – who launched the levelling-up agenda to help deprived communities outside the “overheating” 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 lobby group, said the money given to the North was “a long way off the radical economic transformation we were promised”.
Sharing his frustration, Mr Street said he feared the government viewed “past successes” in the West Midlands “as a reason to reject the majority of the region’s bids”, as he called for the devolution of financial powers to mayors and regional authorities.
Red-wall Tory MPs told The Independent there was some anger at parts of the North and the Midlands missing out on funding, though it was coupled with resignation at the idea that levelling up was also aimed at deprived parts of the South. “There is real frustration,” said one.
Craig Whittaker, the Tory MP for Calder Valley – which did not receive money in the latest round – said: “There will be some who are disappointed, but levelling up isn’t just about one fund.”
He said his area had gained from the government’s towns fund and money for high street regeneration. “We have had well over half a billion pounds invested in the Calder Valley – all contributing to levelling up.”
Mr Sunak – who is also under pressure from the Tory right to cut taxes – told a Q&A audience in Morecambe that 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 war in Ukraine.
Vowing to “get a grip” on 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.”
Earlier, Mr Sunak and Mr Gove spoke to people involved with the Eden Project in Morecambe, following 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.
A regional breakdown of the levelling-up funding shows the following allocations per region:
- 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
