Osborne’s local giveaways: blatant pork-barrel politics?

Labour attacks funding of local causes in marginal seats where coalition MPs are trying to save their bacon

The Mole

A hand-out of £250,000 for researching kebab-snatching urban seagulls is being seen by Labour as evidence that the Chancellor indulged in pork-barrel politics in Wednesday’s Budget in a bid to help Tory and Lib Dem candidates who are fighting marginal seats.

The seagull study was ordered after demands for action by a string of West Country coalition MPs, led by Lib Dem MP Don Foster who is defending a 11,883 majority in the Georgian spa town of Bath.

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is the pseudonym for a London-based political consultant who writes exclusively for The Week.co.uk.