RISHI Sunak has doubled down on plans to take funding away from deprived urban areas and direct it towards wealthy towns and rural districts.
Last month, in a video obtained by The New Statesman, the Conservative leadership hopeful said during a speech to Tory members in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, that "we inherited formulas from the Labour Party, that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas".
He went on to say: "That needed to be undone: I started the work of undoing that.”
The average house price in Tunbridge Wells sits at almost double the national average at £528,459 and Tory figures were divided over the remarks made by Sunak.
But he doesn't appear to be shying away from controversy, given that during an ITV interview on Tuesday he reiterated his belief that too much money has been shoved into poverty-stricken urban areas, arguing that towns and rural places need help too.
During a visit to Newcastle, where there are more children growing up in poverty than anywhere else in England, Sunak was asked if it was the kind of place he felt was getting too much money.
He said in response: "The best way to ensure children don't grow up in poverty is to ensure their parents are in good work."
He was then pushed and asked again about whether the Treasury was shoving too much money into deprived urban areas.
On THAT video in Tunbridge Wells, Rishi Sunak doubles down. “Yes”, too much money has been shoved into deprived urban areas he says - towns and rural areas need help too. I asked if he would be willing to repeat what he said in Newcastle City Centre today. “Absolutely”. 👇 pic.twitter.com/nhUWRst8cP
— Daniel Hewitt (@DanielHewittITV) August 9, 2022
Sunak then said: "Yeah. There are pockets of poverty that exist everywhere, they're not just in big urban cities. They're in small towns. They are in rural areas. There's poverty everywhere we need to tackle.
"I think it is incredibly wrong to suggest there isn't poverty in rural areas."
When asked if he would be willing to repeat what he said in Tunbridge Wells, he said: "I am willing to repeat it, I am repeating it. It is absolutely right."
The remarks come as Sunak continues to try to make up ground against Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to win the backing of party members who will choose the next prime minister.
Sunak added he believes he is still the underdog in the leadership race even though his team keeps saying polls putting him second are wrong.
