Has Rishi blown it?
Tory fury as he tells audience in affluent Tunbridge Wells: ‘I diverted cash away from deprived areas’ Senior minister calls ex-Chancellor’s remarks ‘weirdest and dumbest’ he has ever heard
RISHI Sunak came under fire from Conservative MPs last night after boasting of diverting money from ‘deprived urban areas’ to wealthier parts of the country.
The former chancellor made the comments to Tory members in affluent Tunbridge Wells in Kent while on the campaign trail last month.
In a video leaked to the New Statesman magazine, Mr Sunak said: ‘I managed to start changing the funding formulas to make sure areas like this are getting the funding they deserved.
‘We inherited a bunch of formulas from Labour that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone. I started the work of undoing that.’
His comments are in stark contrast with Boris Johnson’s levelling up agenda, which promised to invest in parts of the country ignored by previous governments.
Through it, the Conservatives were able to win seats in the former ‘Red Wall’ constituencies in the north of England and the Midlands in 2019.
Mr Sunak’s remarks drew anger from senior Tories, with Foreign Office minister Lord Goldsmith claiming the comments were among the ‘weirdest and dumbest’ he had ever heard from a politician.
Tory MPs in the Red Wall also criticised the former chancellor’s remarks.
Jake Berry, chairman of the Northern Research Group, who is backing Liz Truss in the leadership campaign, said: ‘In public Rishi Sunak claims he wants to level up the North, but here he boasts about trying to funnel vital investment away from deprived areas? He says one thing and does another – from putting up taxes to trying to block funding for our Armed Forces and now levelling up.’
Marco Longhi, MP for Dudley North, added: ‘So basically places like Dudley and several Red Wall seats would have still been left behind, forgotten. Boris Johnson knew this wouldn’t do, and so does Liz Truss.’
Labour’s shadow levelling up spokesman Lisa Nandy said Mr Sunak’s comments were ‘scandalous’, adding: ‘Rishi Sunak is openly boasting that he fixed the rules to funnel taxpayers’ money to rich Tory shires. This is our money. It should be spent fairly and where it’s most needed, not used as a bribe to Tory members.’
But Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen, a Sunak ally, suggested he was right to change the funding formula while in Government as it ‘discriminated against non-metropolitan areas in favour of cities’.
North West Durham Tory MP Richard Holden, another of Mr Sunak’s backers, said the former chancellor’s decisions had given greater support to areas like
County Durham, Teesside and the South West.
Last night Mr Sunak defended his comments, telling Sky News: ‘Deprivation exists right across our country and needs to be addressed, and that’s why we need to make sure our funding formulas recognise that, and people who need help and extra investment aren’t just limited to big urban areas.’
At a hustings in Eastbourne last night, Mr Sunak addressed the video, saying: ‘I want to be radical about seizing the opportunities of Brexit, as I did as chancellor, to make sure this is the most dynamic economy in the world for business, and I want to level up everywhere.
‘And as you may have seen from a video clip that’s online, I don’t believe that’s just about our very large urban cities. I believe it’s about investing and levelling up in small towns in rural communities and in coastal communities like those here in the South East.’
His gaffe came as Miss Truss launched her own levelling up agenda, saying they would create low tax, low regulation ‘investment zones’ to attract private sector resources in towns across the UK.