Funds manipulated for political gain

I WAS surprised that your editorial (8 April) implied that we should be happy to take cash for votes in the May elections, after Boris Johnson visited Cornwall offering Truro £23m as part of the Towns Fund.

In the first tranche of the Towns Fund, 39 of the 45 recipients had Conservative MPs. The cross-party public accounts committee stated that the process for choosing recipients of the fund was ‘not impartial’ and that decisions were ‘politically motivated’.

In a similar way, of 93 areas placed in the top priority group to receive money from the Levelling Up fund of £4.8bn, 31 are not in the top third of deprived areas, and 26 of these have Conservative MPs.

Five of these areas are represented by cabinet ministers. Rishi Sunak’s Richmond constituency and Robert Jendrick’s Newark constituency are hardly areas of multiple deprivation. Though the fund is supposed to be ‘levelling up’ it has ended as being ‘levelling down’ by being mired in sleaze. We have been reminded recently of the importance of duty and loyalty; the way these funds have been manipulated for political gain is an insult to those values. Yes, we should be pleased that money is being directed to the South West but we should be ashamed that we have a Government which indulges in pork-barrel politics, the buying of votes with cash. As far as I am concerned, we should call it out for what it is.

Mike Baldwin Thorverton, Devon