PM accused of channelling spending to Labour constituencies

A YORKSHIRE Conservative MP accused Gordon Brown today of channelling health spending and business support to Labour constituencies.

Tory Graham Stuart accused him of putting Labour's party interests "ahead of the needs of the sick".

At Prime Minister's Questions Mr Brown insisted that spending was helping all parts of the country.

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Mr Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) said: "Health funding is skewed to younger, urban Labour-voting areas rather than older, rural areas such as my constituency."

He said Hull received more than 1,800 per head but the East Riding of Yorkshire received just 1,200.

"The Prime Minister knows that it is age, not deprivation that is the key driver of health need, so why does he put the electoral interests of the Labour Party ahead of the needs of the sick?"

Mr Brown told him: "We have doubled expenditure on the NHS so that everyone in our country will benefit."

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He added: "The party that has resisted giving rights to every citizen is the Conservative Party."

Shadow business minister Mark Prisk said the 1 billion strategic investment fund unveiled by Lord Mandelson was also focused on Labour-supporting areas.

Mr Prisk (Hertford and Stortford) said: "It was designed to help industries right across the country ... why is it that 90% of that fund doesn't help industry across the country, 90% has actually been given to Labour constituencies?"

Mr Brown said: "The purpose of all our measures in the recession is to help industry and business out of recession, 300,000 businesses have been helped in all constituencies of the country."

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The Tories had opposed the measures but Labour "took the action to get us out of recession".

He added: "We are taking the action to keep us out of recession, the Conservatives don't have a clue what they would do in 2010."