May loses key MPs' support over 'obscene and derisory' pro-Brexit towns fund
One region's allocation works out at £9 per person per year, in a move unlikely to help the PM out of a tight spot on Brexit.
Monday 4 March 2019 13:28, UK
Theresa May's offer of a cash boost for pro-Brexit towns has been dismissed as a "failure" and "embarrassing".
Key MPs the prime minister needs to win over to get an EU deal through parliament called the amount on offer "derisory", as Mrs May was accused of bribery.
Downing Street unveiled a "Stronger Towns Fund" for less prosperous parts of England on Sunday - with £1bn divided between the regions and a further £600m available for bidding by local authorities.
But the amount of allocated, which will be distributed over the next six financial years, has been criticised.
The West Midlands was awarded the second highest sum of £212m, which works out at £9 per person per year.
Labour MP Ruth Smeeth, whose Stoke-on-Trent North constituency is in the region and voted overwhelmingly to Leave in the 2016 referendum, said local spending cuts far outweighed the amount on offer.
"If Mrs May was trying to bribe Labour MPs then she's failed miserably," Ms Smeeth told Paste BN.
"This is not the conversation that needs to be had about community renewal, which is what I thought we were about to have in terms of a post-Brexit dividend."
Ms Smeeth called it a "derisory amount of money" that would not "make up for the fact that my own city alone has lost more than they are pledging to the entire West Midlands".
She added: "It doesn't even actually make up for the money we've lost from the local economy with the roll out of Universal Credit. It's obscene."
Anna Turley, the Labour MP for Redcar, also told Paste BN areas like hers had been "left behind and held back by lack of investment" for decades.
"The idea that they can now just throw this as a last-ditch desperate attempt to cross the floor and vote for Theresa May's deal is embarrassing and shambolic and really undermines democracy," she said.
Under the new scheme, the funding breakdown for English regions is:
:: North West - £281m
:: West Midlands - £212m
:: Yorkshire and the Humber - £197m
:: East Midlands - £110m
:: North East - £105m
:: South East - £37m
:: South West - £35m
:: East of England - £25m
The government says it will also seek to ensure towns across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will benefit from new funding.
Jonathan Edward, Plaid Cymru's treasury spokesperson, said Wales "must get its fair funding share".
He added: "If there is money to be invested in communities that have been left behind, it should go to those communities, regardless of whether it will buy votes for the prime minister's dodgy Brexit deal or not."
Mrs May has already gifted Northern Ireland an extra £1bn in return for the Democratic Unionist Party's support to get crucial Brexit legislation passed in parliament.
Communities secretary James Brokenshire said: "This is absolutely not some sort of bribe, I reject that completely.
"It is actually following through on what the prime minister's mission has been, about seeing that we have a country that works for everyone, that all parts and all places feel that as we go through Brexit."
Mrs May's spokesperson said she had always said prosperity had been unfairly spread across Britain for "too long".
The prime minister lost a vote on her EU withdrawal agreement by 200 votes last month, as Tory Remainers and Brexiteers joined forces to condemn it.
She may rely on the help of Labour MPs to help push it through in a second vote expected to take place in the next two weeks.
The UK is currently due to leave the EU on 29 March by default with or without a deal.