As the new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, stood at the dispatch box for his first PMQs, Labour’s Lisa Nandy issued a letter calling for an “independent investigation into comments made by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who boasted that while Chancellor he changed funding formulas to redirect taxpayers’ money from ‘deprived’ areas to affluent Tory shires”.
The comments, originally revealed by the left-wing New Statesman magazine in August, were made at a leadership hustings event in Tunbridge Wells in late July.
According to the magazine, Mr Sunak said: “I managed to start changing the funding formulas, to make sure areas like this are getting the funding they deserve because 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.”
Although we are unclear of either exactly what was said, having only a short clip or the context of the comments, Mr Sunak’s Labour opponents believe they are extremely damaging, showing a politician boasting about taking money from deprived urban areas and coastal communities to spend in more affluent Conservative voting areas such as Tunbridge Wells.
Now the Shadow Levelling Up Secretary, Lisa Nandy MP, has today written to her new counterpart, Michael Gove, urging him to launch an independent investigation to establish:
In the release Labour also highlight that the Public Accounts Committee had previously raised serious concerns about how the Department for Levelling Up reached funding decisions saying there was evidence of ministerial interference.
In June, the Committee said it was “unsatisfactory” that ministers finalised the principles for awarding the first round of Levelling Up funds only once they knew the identities of shortlisted bidders, and in November 2020 they reported that the selection process for awarding the Towns Fund had “not been impartial”.
This Labour claim shows that Conservative ministers have “past form” on manipulating the awarding of millions of pounds of taxpayer’s money.
In her letter, Ms Nandy, says: “The Conservative Government was elected in 2019 on a flagship promise to level up parts of the country that had experienced relative economic decline.
“This could not be more serious. The Prime Minister has admitted that when he was Chancellor, he fixed the rules to funnel taxpayers’ money from “deprived” to more affluent parts of the country. This is the complete opposite of levelling up.
“The Prime Minister has no mandate from the electorate to reverse the commitments made in 2019. His admission undermines the trust and confidence of the public and shatters the legitimacy of this government. It is a warning sign that Rishi Sunak is not on the side of working people.”
While Mr Sunak’s supporters have tried to brush aside his comments and claim that he was merely talking about ensuring some levelling up money also went to “deprived rural areas”, it is unlikely to go away, especially as Labour clearly believe this line of attack has the ability to harm the Prime Minster.
As one Labour MP told us that this feeds into a larger narrative that neither the PM nor his Party are in touch with ordinary voters. The MP added that the Conservatives were the Party that wanted to cut the top rate of tax on the richest and do away with a cap on bankers’ bonuses, while the Mr Sunak is “twice a wealthy as the King”.
Time will tell if this resonates with voters but until then expect this line of attack to be repeated by every Labour MP and candidate from Blackpool to Barnsley.
We contacted CCHQ, Downing Street and the Department for Levelling Up for a comment, but at the time of publication, none had been received.
ENDS