Thread by @georgegrylls

A Towns Fund thread:

Robert Jenrick’s constituency has just received the maximum amount of money it could have possibly received from the Towns Fund.

1/

Jenrick has denied that he had anything to do with his department's decision to select Newark. But here he is at the 2019 election.....2/

https://twitter.com/georgegrylls/status/1319967659577008135

Jenrick has insisted that Jake Berry, his junior minister, selected Newark to bid for funding.

Jenrick has admitted, however, that he selected Darwen, in Berry's constituency, to bid for funding.

Newark is the 270th most deprived town in the country, Darwen is 289th.

3/

Anyway, when Newark was chosen, Jenrick speculated that the money from the Towns Fund could be spent on a refurbishment of the castle's gatehouse in an interview with his local paper 4/

(for trivia fans, this is the castle where King John died - the baddy lion from Robin Hood)

Jenrick then sat on Newark's Towns Fund board. The board chose which local projects the money would go on.

Mysteriously, Jenrick quit the board days before the NAO released a damning report on the Towns Fund. 5/

The board could bid for up to £25 million from Jenrick's department.

In a few exceptional circumstances a town could receive more - so for example Blackpool got £39.5 million.

But basically a town could only get up to £25 million. 6/

Today it was announced that Newark was one of the lucky few towns to get the full £25 million!

Remember the castle gatehouse project? Well guess what Jenrick's local paper is telling us the money will go on.....7/

Here are some links to our reporting on the Towns Fund ....END

thetimes.co.uk/article/robert…

thetimes.co.uk/article/margin…

thetimes.co.uk/article/minist…

thetimes.co.uk/article/robert…