Boris Johnson’s £14 billion funding boost for schools will overwhelmingly benefit those in Conservative MPs’ constituencies, new analysis has revealed.
It will also help the Tories to target marginal seats in any general election.
Grammar schools will be among the schools benefiting most, while schools in the North of England will see little of the promised money.
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The analysis reveals that more than 90 per cent of the schools receiving a funding increase of more than £100 per pupil per year will be Conservative-held constituencies, in areas such as Essex, the South-West and Kent.
The vast majority of the 153 constituencies that will receive additional funding - 143 of them, or 93 per cent - are Tory-held seats, the analysis, conducted by the Sunday Times, shows.
Pupils in five Conservative-held constituencies seats - South-West Devon, Mid-Dorset and North Poole, North Somerset, Mid-Derbyshire and Tunbridge Wells - will receive an average of £400 or more per pupil, based on 2018-19 funding figures.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s education spokeswoman, said: “This is clearly designed as an election bribe.”
She added that schools in areas such as London and the North of England - many of which were in particularly great need - would not receive any funding increase.
Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman, said: “I think this is absolutely Boris Johnson preparing for a potential election.”
On Friday, Boris Johnson pledged to provide £14 billion in school funding over the next three years. This would raise the minimum per-pupil spending to £4,000 a year for primary pupils, and £5,000 a year for secondary pupils.
Mr Johnson said that the funding was intended to ensure that every child received a “superb education” with “areas of the country that have been historically underfunded” getting the greatest increases.
He added that there could be “no winners or losers when it comes to our children’s futures”.
