Levelling Up row as MP claims councillors told 'outright lies' about his backing for neighbouring borough's bid

A row over levelling up funding has broken out between leading Stockport councillors and a furious MP who claims ‘outright lies’ were told about him at a full council meeting. Labour MP Andrew Gwynne is demanding a correction of the record and an apology after senior Lib Dem councillors said he had backed a Levelling up bid for Denton - in the Tameside half of his constituency - over one for Reddish, in Stockport.

Mr Gwynne - whose Denton and Reddish constituency straddles the two boroughs - says he had always intended to back a second bid for the Reddish Baths project but was unable to as the council had not prepared a proposal in time. However, the Lib Dems are refusing to back down, insisting that there was nothing ‘factually incorrect’ in what was said in the council chamber, at the March 30 meeting.

And they believe that Mr Gwynne’s anger would be better directed at the government, whose rules stipulate that an MP can only back one bid in his constituency. But Mr Gwynne - who has lodged a formal complaint with the authority - says that ‘for Liberal Democrat Councillors to be using their platform in their chamber to spread outright lies is totally unacceptable’.READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community

“I supported the Reddish Round 1 Levelling Up Fund, which was rejected by the Tory government,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service. “The Liberal Democratic council then didn’t have a project for Round 2 of the fund, so I naturally supported Tameside Council’s last-minute proposal so something from the Denton and Reddish constituency could be submitted within the government's deadline.”

"Had the Liberal Democrats managed to put a bid together for Reddish, then I of course would have