'Entirely objective' criteria for town deal funding

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the criteria used to determine which areas received town deal funding was "entirely objective". The Budget announced that more than £1 billion is to be given for 45 new so-called bespoke "town deals", which support areas that do not qualify for city deal-style funding, with 40 of the towns represented by Conservative MPs. "I think if you look at the map, one of the functions of the election is clearly that there are a lot of Conservative represented towns.".