Conservatives pledge cash for towns as Labour focuses on growth

The Conservatives have pledged to give 30 towns across the UK £20m each in an expansion of its levelling-up policy, if the party is re-elected.

Areas including Tamworth, Halifax, Newtown and Perth would benefit from the funding, with local people deciding how it would be used.

But Labour branded the levelling-up pledge a “phoney gimmick” that had failed to deliver economic growth.

The party said the policy was “another reckless unfunded spending commitment”.

The Liberal Democrats said the Tories had failed to deliver on their levelling up promises and the policy had “pitted councils against each other and left them begging for scraps”.

The Scottish National Party said the Tory approach had not delivered “a grain of investment in our communities”.

The promised funding would take the total number of towns on the programme to more than 100.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the funding could go towards things like reviving high streets and growing local economies.

Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme why 16 of the areas had Tory MPs, Science Minister Andrew Griffith denied this was electioneering.

Others, including Tamworth, were recently held by the Conservatives.

“It’s not a new gimmick, it’s a tried and tested policy that’s already working,” Mr Griffith said.

Asked whether he was trying to buy votes, Mr Sunak said an “objective set of criteria” was used to select towns for funding, looking at economic opportunity, health and life expectancy.

The prime minister was speaking as he started his weekend of campaigning in Teesside, as part of a tour of north-east England.

Meanwhile, Labour has launched its election “battle bus” in west London, with deputy leader Angela Rayner setting off on a 5,000-mile tour of battleground seats across the country.

It comes as the party seeks to move on from the row over Diane Abbott.

On Friday Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the veteran left-winger would be “free to go forward as a Labour candidate”, after months of uncertainty about her future.

The former shadow home secretary was suspended from the party last April for saying Jewish, Irish and Traveller people do not face racism “all their lives”.

She apologised but was not readmitted to the party until this week.

Earlier, in an interview with the Times newspaper, Sir Keir said his party’s “number one mission is wealth creation”.

The Labour leader has made economic stability and delivering growth central to his campaign and the first of his party’s five missions.

“When I say our number one mission is economic growth you could say our number one mission is wealth creation,” he told the Times.

Sir Keir acknowledged it was “an odd thing for the Labour Party to say” but added that encouraging people to make money was “the only way our country can go forward”.

In 1998 New Labour spin doctor Peter Mandelson famously said his party was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich as long as they pay their taxes”.

Asked if he was also relaxed about people making money, Sir Keir told the paper: “Very. I’m not just relaxed, I’m relaxed as well as being doggedly determined.”

Sir Keir also set out plans to reform the benefits system, which he hopes will help get two million more people back into work.

The party will aim to increase the employment rate from 75% to 80% if it wins power, partly by bringing together job centres and the careers service.

There would also be greater powers and more funding for mayors to develop localised schemes to improve employment in their areas.

There would be a particular focus on 18-to-21 year-olds, with help guaranteed to get them into work, training or apprenticeships.

The Conservatives said the plans were “waffle not welfare reform”.

Last year, the Tories announced their own plans to get people back to work, including extra support for job-seekers and tougher sanctions for people who are able to work but are not trying to look for a job.