Leaked video shows UK's Rishi Sunak claiming to divert funding from poorer areas
August 6, 2022, 9:35 am

Rishi Sunak

A video leaked on Friday (August 5) showed Rishi Sunak, one of the final two candidates to lead the British Conservative Party, telling party members that when he was Chancellor, he had begun changing funding formulas to divert money from poorer areas.

Sunak said in the footage: "I managed to start changing the funding formulas, to make sure areas like this are getting the funding they deserve because we inherited a bunch of formulas from Labour that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone. I started the work of undoing that.”

The video, published by the New Statesman, a British political magazine, and recorded at an event in Kent, eastern England on July 29, caused controversy on social media.

Lisa Nandy of the main opposition center-left Labour Party said Sunak was "openly boasting that he fixed the rules to funnel taxpayers' money to prosperous Tory shires (Conservative rural areas).

She said: This is our money. It should be distributed fairly and spent where it's most needed -- not used as a bribe to Tory members."

Rishi Sunak in his latest televised debate (August 2) in the race to become the new Prime Minister in UK - Photo. Rishi Sunak official facebook page

The Conservative Party membership will soon vote to decide on their next leader, who will also become the next prime minister.

Liz Truss, who is running against Sunak, is leading in internal Conservative Party membership polls by a significant margin, though Sunak led in the first stage of the contest with Conservative members of parliament.

The new leader of the Conservative Party, and in turn prime minister, will be announced on Sept. 5, 2022.

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Rishi Sunak was previously appointed UK Chancellor of the Exchequer from 13 February 2020 to 5 July 2022. Hspent his professional career before politics in business and finance, working internationally

He was previously Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 24 July 2019 to 13 February 2020, and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government from 9 January 2018 to 24 July 2019.

Rishi was elected Conservative MP for Richmond (Yorks) in May 2015 and served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from June 2017 until his ministerial appointment.

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Upon arriving to participate in the summit of the European Political Community, which includes around forty heads of state in Budapest, he said, "I look forward to sitting with the elected U.S. president and seeing how we will collectively ensure we meet challenges, including the threats from Russia and North Korea." He also noted that the strengthening of ties between Russia and North Korea poses a threat to the United States as well, according to reports from Agence France-Presse.

Before Trump's victory, Rutte expressed confidence that a united Washington would remain part of the defensive alliance, even if Trump became the 47th president of the United States. In an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF last Monday night, he stated that both Republicans and Democrats understand that NATO serves not only the security of Europe but also that of America. He added that both candidates are aware that the security of the United States is closely tied to NATO.

On Wednesday, NATO congratulated Trump on his victory but did not address the Ukrainian issue.

It is noteworthy that the relationship between the elected U.S. president and the defense alliance was not the best during his first term in the White House. Trump criticized NATO member states multiple times and even hinted at withdrawing from the alliance unless they increased their financial contributions.

Additionally, the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian war is one of the matters that complicate relations between the two sides, especially since Trump has repeatedly stated that he can end this ongoing conflict, which began in 2022, quickly. He implied that he had a peace plan between Kyiv and Moscow, while his vice president, JD Vance, revealed aspects of that plan, which stipulated Ukraine's commitment not to join NATO, thereby sending reassuring signals to the Russians.

Furthermore, many NATO member states in Europe fear that Trump might halt military aid to Ukraine after he previously criticized the U.S. for pouring funds into supporting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.