RISHI SUNAK claimed he was committed to levelling-up after it emerged the poorest areas of Britain may be deprived of high street and community safety funding to launch the Tories’ national service.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned today that areas with high deprivation have the most to lose under government plans to close its flagship UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and use £1.5 billion to support military and volunteering opportunities for 18-year-olds.
This could result in wealthier areas across southern England receiving “a substantial increase in net funding” as the UKSPF is worth up to 45 times less per person in areas such as Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales, Cornwall and the Tees Valley, the think tank said.
In the second part of her critique of Wes Streeting’s TenYear Plan for Health, HELEN MERCER looks at the central planks of this privatisation blueprint
Incoming Usdaw general secretary JOANNE THOMAS talks to Ben Chacko about workers’ rights, Labour and how to arrest the decline of the high street



