TORY austerity is hitting Labour-controlled areas in the north and inner-city London the hardest while richer Conservative-controlled suburbs are protected, new Labour Party research reveals.

Labour council areas are set to see a cut over five times that of the south-east’s Home Counties by 2020.

The most deprived areas of the country are being hit particularly hard, with nine in 10 of them having seen their spending power per household cut by almost three times the national average of £254.