HULL: A senior city councillor has scoffed the Government's claim the "country is all in it together".
Councillor Daren Hale, deputy leader of Hull City Council, has called for his colleagues to back a campaign for a fair share of Whitehall cash.
Last week, Hull North MP Diana Johnson voiced concerns in the House of Commons that the city was missing out on funding as Lib Dem and Tory MPs voted through the latest round of crippling local government spending cuts.
Ms Johnson says if you add the latest cuts to those already made by the coalition government, Hull will have lost £228.36 per person from 2010 to 2015.
Now, Councillor Daren Hale, deputy leader of the council, plans to table a motion inviting members to back Ms Johnson's A Fair Deal For Hull campaign.
Cllr Hale said: "Diana's campaign and petition is to be commended.
"I will be tabling a motion at the next council meeting to support the campaign in whatever way we can."
Ms Johnson has hit out at what she calls "the unfair concentration of govern- ment spending cuts on the most deprived areas".
Cllr Hale said: "Despite what the Government says, we are certainly not all in this together.
"The figures Diana quotes are real and undisputed.
"What is also clear is that big northern authorities such as Hull are taking the heaviest cuts to their funding.
"Hull is a city with a great future, but it is also a city with some serious issues relating to poverty and unemployment.
"I agree entirely with Diana's campaign for fairness."
Ms Johnson, who spent Saturday morning collecting signatures for her petition in Bransholme, says local authorities in deprived parts of the country are struggling to make ends meet.
She said: "Whatever people think about the Government's overall cut to local government funding nationally, it's grossly unfair to people in the tenth most-deprived local authority area in the country to face deeper cuts to local services than many wealthier areas."
Visit www.dianajohnson. co.uk to sign the petition.
