JOHN McDONNELL said the government had reached “a new low” after its “Brexit bribe” to poorer Leave-voting areas proved to be taken out of existing departmental budgets.

The shadow chancellor was commenting on a confirmation by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) that the £1.6 billion fund to encourage Labour MPs of Leave-voting areas to vote for Theresa May’s Brexit deal will not be new money.

He said: “This failing Tory government reached a new low in attempting to buy the votes of Labour MPs for its failed Brexit deal with the announcement of its so called ‘Towns Fund’ last week.

“We now know that the token amounts offered to Labour MPs was not even new money but taken from the budgets of overstretched departments already savaged by nine years of austerity.

“The Chancellor’s shameful attempts at bribery – giving with one hand while taking with another – demeans the office he holds.”

On Saturday, Mr McDonnell was in Gravesham in Kent where he is expected to unveil plans to halt austerity and raise living standards in the county.

He also said that Britain has been let down by a “disastrous Tory cocktail of callousness and incompetence.”

Labour candidates will stand in all of the borough’s contestable wards this May.  

Mr McDonnell is also expected to say: “Labour will halt austerity and grow a vibrant and prosperous local economy. We will deliver a fair deal for Gravesham and Kent as a whole.

“That means increasing income tax, but only on the top 5 per cent of earners – the people who can afford it and who can pay a little bit more. At the same time we will tackle tax dodging and reverse some of the giveaways to the corporations.”