Rishi Sunak bragged of diverting money away from 'deprived urban areas'

Tory leadership candidate Rishi Sunak bragged of diverting money away from "deprived urban areas" towards wealthier parts of the country.

In a speech made in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, the former chancellor said he had reversed funding formulas inherited from the former Labour government.

In a video obtained by The New Statesman, Sunak tells his audience he "started the work of undoing" the formulas which saw money allocated to the poorest urban areas.

He said: "I managed to start changing the funding formulas to make sure that areas like this are getting the funding that they deserve.

"We inherited a bunch of formulas from the Labour Party that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone. I started the work of undoing that."

The video is likely to raise serious questions about the government's 'levelling up' agenda which seeks to increase funding and relative prosperity in traditional Labour heartlands - the so-called Red Wall - which went to the Conservatives at the last election.