CUTS to local authorities have hit poorer areas like Swindon harder, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn claimed in parliament yesterday.

Cuts to council budgets are uneven, the Labour leader said: "Take Swindon, for example, where Honda recently announced 3,500 jobs cuts, child poverty is over one third higher than it is in Surrey.

"Yet in Swindon they would have lost £235 per household in government funding cuts where as a household in Surrey will see more money from central government.

"Can the Prime Minister explain why Swindon faces cuts while Surrey gets more money?"

Coun Jim Grant, leader of the Labour Group in Swindon, added: “Nine years of damaging Tory austerity is taking its toll across the country.

"Here in Swindon, two Tory MPs and a Tory Council have closed all of our Sure Start centres and slashed the crime prevention budget by 95 per cent.

"Swindon deserves better – and a Labour council will invest more to keep people safe, reopen children’s centres and take measures to tackle homelessness.”

Robert Buckland MP for south Swindon said: "Jeremy Corbyn has no answers for Swindon, and doesn't seem to know the facts either.

"The government has given Swindon Borough Council above-inflation increases of 3.4 per cent, plus additional funds to tackle rough sleeping, which is already showing positive results and a reduction in numbers."