ELLESMERE PORT missed out on millions of town regeneration funding because of 'Tory gerrymandering expected from a tin-pot dictatorship', according to the town's MP.

Ellesmere Port and Neston MP Justin Madders was fuming after the results of a National Audit Office report into the Government’s £3.6 billion Towns Fund regeneration scheme in England were made public.

While the report concluded the overall selection of the 101 towns to receive either £25 million or £50 million was "acceptable", it revealed some towns on a low-priority list had been given the go-ahead for funding at the expense of others deemed more urgently in need.

Officials had recommended that 40 towns – including Birkenhead and Runcorn – were 'high-priority' towns in need of funding, which Government ministers agreed should be funded.

However, ministers chose a mixture of medium and low-priority towns and cities for the funding to be distributed, the vast majority of them in either Conservative-held constituencies or potential Conservative constituency gains at an election.

This meant Labour-held Ellesmere Port – classed as a 'medium priority case' on criteria such as income and skills deprivation, productivity and the damage potentially caused by a no-deal Brexit – was overlooked in favour of places such as Tory marginal seat Cheadle, which was the seventh lowest priority town for the whole of England.

Of the 12 North West towns chosen for the funding, all were in constituencies either won by the Conservatives in the 2019 General Election, having been Labour marginal seats, were Conservative marginal seats, or were Conservative strongholds, with the sole exception of Warrington North (Labour), although Warrington South was a Tory gain in 2019.

Reacting to the report, Mr Madders said: "I smelt a rat when I saw this last year, so I asked the National Audit Office to investigate it.

"I didn’t think it would turn out to be so absolutely outrageously skewed towards Tory seats.

"To have used public funds for such blatant party-political motives is the kind of gerrymandering that we expect from a tin-pot dictatorship not a supposedly mature democracy.

"I call on ministers to apologise and for them to now allocate funds to towns where it is most needed, including Ellesmere Port.”

Explaining the rationale for why Cheadle should receive funding, ministers commented: "Cheadle is strategically located between Stockport and Manchester Airport, with strong motorway links to relevant job opportunities and a new link dual carriageway.

"The area is part of Stockport Borough Council, which is looking to set up a Mayoral Development Corporation. Transport improvements in nearby Cheadle Hulme have primed the area for investment. The town ranks in the top half of the 541 towns for Index of Multiple Deprivation deprivation."

Explaining why Leyland, also in a Conservative-held constituency, should receive millions in regeneration funds, ministers said: "The area scores relatively poorly in productivity and has a relatively high ‘exposure to EU Exit’ value."

The National Audit Office added the towns chosen were spread fairly geographically. It concluded: "The spread of towns across regions led to a regional distribution of funding that was focused on the regions with higher need, as intended, and was therefore acceptable."

It is not yet clear from the report whether the towns which were selected to receive a share of the £3.6 billion funding have actually received said funding, with the coronavirus crisis potentially delaying the scheme.