Pork-barrel politics.
Trumpism comes to Britain.
"The Conservative government came to power in 2019 promising to “level up” prosperity across the UK. But its selection this week of the places needing most help has prompted accusations of political bias."
"Further FT research has found that 11 areas in England represented solely by MPs from the Conservative party that are in the lower half of national deprivation rankings have been put in the fund’s highest category.
The areas, including some of chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Richmond constituency in rural North Yorkshire, have been classified as “priority one” regions while some of the most deprived places in the country have been classed as “priority two”.
https://www.ft.com/content/d485da2a-5778-45ae-9fa8-ca024bc8bbcf
"The FT used local authority deprivation indices from the communities and local government ministry to rank 313 local authorities in England by income and health and then added their political representation — although constituency and local authority boundaries do not often coincide.
Wales and Scotland’s deprivation indices are not directly comparable so they were not included.
The analysis found that Conservative areas were consistently placed in a higher priority category than their deprivation level and many Labour voting areas in a lower one."
"Labour on Friday also attacked a second government development scheme, the Community Renewal Fund, for prioritising seven seats of cabinet ministers, including Sunak and Jenrick. This initiative, which will allocate £220m for projects, has a similar priority ranking system to the Levelling Up Fund."
Trumpism comes to Britain.
"The Conservative government came to power in 2019 promising to “level up” prosperity across the UK. But its selection this week of the places needing most help has prompted accusations of political bias."
"Further FT research has found that 11 areas in England represented solely by MPs from the Conservative party that are in the lower half of national deprivation rankings have been put in the fund’s highest category.
The areas, including some of chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Richmond constituency in rural North Yorkshire, have been classified as “priority one” regions while some of the most deprived places in the country have been classed as “priority two”.
https://www.ft.com/content/d485da2a-5778-45ae-9fa8-ca024bc8bbcf
"The FT used local authority deprivation indices from the communities and local government ministry to rank 313 local authorities in England by income and health and then added their political representation — although constituency and local authority boundaries do not often coincide.
Wales and Scotland’s deprivation indices are not directly comparable so they were not included.
The analysis found that Conservative areas were consistently placed in a higher priority category than their deprivation level and many Labour voting areas in a lower one."
"Labour on Friday also attacked a second government development scheme, the Community Renewal Fund, for prioritising seven seats of cabinet ministers, including Sunak and Jenrick. This initiative, which will allocate £220m for projects, has a similar priority ranking system to the Levelling Up Fund."
