Angela Rayner’s £15mn community recovery fund, established in the aftermath of the Southport killings, has become embroiled in a row over whether public money intended to heal fractured communities was used to fight the political Right.
Fresh documents reportedly show that money distributed through the scheme supported training materials designed to counter support for Reform UK and the Conservatives, including a programme entitled Defeating Narratives of Division.
The fund was announced in 2024 by Rayner, then deputy prime minister, to help communities recover from disorder following the Southport massacre. She said it would ensure local areas had the resources needed to rebuild.
But funding subsequently reached the Ella Baker School of Organising, which developed the programme, according to documents reported by The Telegraph.
Birmingham City Council contributed £13,450 towards a pilot, while Blackpool Council provided £9,000 for a local version. Training was also delivered in Sheffield, Walsall, Solihull and Sefton, which includes Southport.
The materials reportedly advised participants on countering anti-immigration arguments, opposing protests and preventing working-class communities from gravitating towards right-wing politics.
An online booking form for one session warned of an “impending disaster of a Reform UK government”. Other materials described Nigel Farage as an “authoritarian populist” and urged activists to challenge arguments connecting migration with pressure on housing and public services.
Participants were also encouraged to influence community leaders and organise campaigns around local issues to promote a more “inclusive” political narrative.
The disclosures raise questions about the boundary between legitimate community cohesion work and partisan political campaigning — particularly when the money involved comes from taxpayers and was ostensibly intended to help communities recover from disorder.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said councils were “not permitted to use taxpayers’ money to fund partisan issues or party-political activity”.
The department added that it had powers to recover funding if it was found to have been misspent.
Whether those powers will be exercised may now prove the critical test of the scheme’s accountability — and of the government’s willingness to enforce its own rules on the use of public money.
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