Levelling Up

Our Prime Minister promised integrity, professionalism, and accountability. So far, we have had the Prime Minister being fined for not wearing his seat belt and Nadim Zahawi, the Conservative party chair appears to have been fined millions of pounds for being careless with his tax returns when Chancellor. Meanwhile the chair of the BBC, a well-known Tory donor, was in the position of being identified as a fixer for yet another loan for the ever skint Boris Johnson when PM.

Meanwhile the long promised levelling up funds were a dramatic example of pork barrel politics which would have delighted many American politicians. The Conservative government has failed to inject any money and support in the local communities in North West Hampshire in the levelling up fund. This comes despite the Prime Minister's own constituency of Richmond in Yorkshire receiving a staggering £19 million. The lack of any funding for our constituency will probably most impact the Andover town centre regeneration project for which funds had been bid for, but I notice that the Conservative Test Valley leadership made light of it.

The problem with the levelling up fund was that it was paid by taking money that would otherwise have been distributed across the board to local councils for them to spend against their own priorities. Instead, we have been left out and forced to fend for ourselves whilst the Prime Minister has feathered his own nest. This is a disgrace. I would suggest that in this last week the Conservatives have not shown any integrity or accountability let alone professionalism. If we want positive change, it is time for them to go.

Cllr Luigi Gregori