The opposition Labour party yesterday accused Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May of attempting to “bribe” lawmakers into supporting her Brexit deal, after she promised extra funds for economically deprived areas of England.
May announced a seven-year, £1.6bn “stronger towns fund” for parts of northern and central England, less than four weeks before Britain is scheduled to leave the EU on March 29.
Most of the initial £1bn will go to communities in the English north and Midlands, where many Labour-held parliamentary constituencies returned a majority for Brexit in the 2016 referendum.
Labour said the initiative “smacks of desperation from a government reduced to bribing MPs to vote for their damaging flagship Brexit legislation.”
Richard Corbett, a Labour member of the European Parliament, said the planned funding was “far less than what these towns will lose due to Brexit.”
A separate Labour Against Brexit group claimed that areas likely to benefit from the initiative could lose some £11bn in EU funding during the seven years.
The group urged Labour lawmakers not to be “kidded by the latest con.”
But pro-Brexit Labour lawmaker John Mann, who has discussed the funding plan with May, said it meant “new money, which will need a lot more from existing sources of funds and the replacement for EU structural funds.”
May said economic prosperity in Britain had been “unfairly spread” for too long.
“Communities across the country voted for Brexit as an expression of their desire to see change — that must be a change for the better, with more opportunity and greater control,” she said.
May has sought support among lawmakers from the biggest opposition party since she suffered a crushing defeat in a vote on her Brexit deal in mid-January.
She plans to call a second vote on the deal next week after promising to seek changes to a controversial “backstop” arrangement to guarantee an open Irish border after Brexit.
“The reason our towns are struggling is because of a decade of cuts, including to council funding and a failure to invest in businesses and our communities,” said John McDonnell, Labour’s shadow chancellor.
“No Brexit bribery; stable investment where it’s most needed,” McDonnell said.
The Times reported last month that May would attempt to persuade more than 20 of Labour’s 245 lawmakers to support her Brexit deal.
Anna Turley, a Labour lawmaker for the north-eastern town of Redcar in Teesside, said that report was “shocking,” accusing May of US-style “pork barrel politics.”
“My view hasn’t changed,” Turley tweeted yesterday. “Theresa May is trying to bribe the people of Redcar. She can forget it.”
Scottish National Party lawmaker Stewart McDonald accused May of “planning to break all spending norms,” while Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Tom Brake tweeted that “anyone who votes for the PM’s deal on the back of this Tory promise is a gullible fool.”
EU and British officials said May’s attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, and Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay will hold more talks in Brussels today.