Rishi Sunak says he will divert money from ‘deprived’ areas to wealthier towns in leaked video

Rishi Sunak told Tory members that he had diverted government money from “deprived urban areas” to wealthier countryside towns, a leaked video shows. 

He said that during his time in the Treasury he had overturned spending formulas inherited from Labour to make sure that more cash went to rural communities.

The remarks, which he made during a private hustings event in Tunbridge Wells last Friday, will prove awkward as the country faces a cost of living crisis.

It contrasts sharply with comments he made during a Sky TV debate on Thursday night, during which he said his record showed he was committed to helping the poorest in society.

In the video, published by the New Statesman magazine, Mr Sunak is seen standing on a lawn addressing Tory members, who are sitting in chairs around him.

“I managed to start changing the funding formulas to make sure that areas like this are getting the funding that they deserve because we inherited a bunch of formulas from the Labour Party that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas,” he tells them.

“That needed to be undone, I started the work of undoing that”, he adds, before going on to say he had overseen increases to local government funding before the 20-second clip ends.

The average house price in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, was £528,459 at the end of last year, compared with a national average of £271,000.

Mr Sunak also raised the issue of centralised funding formulas during a televised Tory hustings in Exter last week, saying they “don’t work properly” for rural areas.

He pointed out that “very small village primary schools” are punished by Whitehall spending targets because they are deemed to be not as efficient as larger ones in towns and cities.

The former chancellor said he had already started to change how money was allocated for social care and transport to make sure more goes to the countryside.

“We need to make sure that the voice of rural Britain is heard loudly and clearly down in Westminster,” he told Tory members to applause.

An ally of Mr Sunak defended his comments.

“Once again this shows Rishi Sunak totally takes on the Treasury orthodoxy whereas Truss doesn’t,” they said. “She didn’t change this as chief secretary to the treasury. Actions not words.”

Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, expressed anger at his latest remarks. “This leadership race is revealing the Conservatives’ true colours,” she said.

“It’s scandalous that Rishi Sunak is openly boasting that he fixed the rules to funnel taxpayers’ money to prosperous Tory shires.

“This is our money. It should be distributed fairly and spent where it’s most needed – not used as a bribe to Tory members.”

Mr Sunak previously faced criticism over the allocation of levelling up cash, which Labour claimed was deliberately being funnelled towards Conservative areas.

His own constituency of Richmondshire was prioritised for extra funds despite being relatively wealthy. The former chancellor was not involved in that decision.

It separately emerged that 40 out of the 45 areas given a share of a £1 billion towns fund were represented by Tory MPs.

But in a damning report the Commons Public Accounts Committee expressed concerns that how the £3.6 billion levelling up pot was distributed was politically motivated.

MP said they were “not convinced by the rationales for selecting some towns and not others” and that the allocations were made on the basis of “vague” criteria.

An ally of Mr Sunak defended his comments.

“Once again this shows Rishi Sunak totally takes on the Treasury orthodoxy whereas Truss doesn’t,” they said. “She didn’t change this as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Actions not words.”