Iran Press/Europe: Labour MPs, said the new cash would not buy their votes to support UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal.
Labour MPs including Lisa Nandy and Gareth Snell who have signaled they might back May’s deal criticized the approach and said the cash would do little to tackle the effects of austerity, the Guardian reported.
The Community secretary, James Brokenshire, denied the money was a Brexit bribe and said it would be enough to have a 'transformative' impact on areas that felt left behind.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Monday, he refused to say how many towns would benefit, but pointed out that the cash would be allocated whatever happens in next week’s meaningful vote on the EU withdrawal bill.
The prime minister said the Stronger Towns Fund, much of it allocated to the north of England and the Midlands, would go to areas that had not shared the proceeds of growth.
Brexit
UK Prime Minister and £1.6bn bribe for Brexit deal
May, who is also expected to announce post-Brexit guarantees on workers’ and trade union rights in the coming days, said £1bn had been allocated already, of which more than half would go to the north of England, where towns such as Wakefield, Doncaster and Wigan voted heavily for Brexit.
About £322m will go to towns in the Midlands, where the leave vote in places such as Stoke-on-Trent, Mansfield and Wolverhampton was high.
Nandy, the MP for Wigan and a former shadow minister, said towns such as hers had been shamefully ignored for decades and the new fund must represent the start of an overhaul in the government’s approach to investment.
If it is a one-off payment designed to help the prime minister ahead of a key Brexit vote, it will fail and confirm to people in our towns that the government is not serious in its commitment to our communities, she said.
Snell, the MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, one of the MPs who has been negotiating with the government about new guarantees for workers, said the money for his region would not even cover the cuts made by his local council.
Regardless of how much money the prime minister promises communities like the West Midlands, I will make up my mind on how I vote based on the terms of the deal. There is no price on my vote, he said.
Conservative MPs were disconcerted that the pledge had been linked to securing the votes of Labour MPs. Robert Halfon, the MP for Harlow, pushed the prime minister during PMQs last week for reassurance that towns such as his in Essex would be able to make the case for more funding.
Brexit is Britain’s most significant political and economic decision since World War Two. Pro-Europeans fear the departure will weaken the West as it grapples with the US presidency of Donald Trump.105/201
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