A £23 million Government award handed to Bradford to help create jobs, reduce crime and improve education sparked a political row today.

Bradford North MP Terry Rooney claimed a planned allocation system - where population carries equal weight with deprivation - meant more prosperous suburbs like Ilkley and Bingley would do well, while areas of most need lost out.

The Council's Labour group also hit out at the proposals and was trying to get them thrown out at today's executive committee.

The group has also slammed plans to leave decisions to the area panels for the first year in the three-year programme, and claims they should be made by organisations working in partnership with the Council.

Mr Rooney said he believed the criteria for allocating the cash was "blatant manipulation" of Government help for needy areas.

Leader of the Labour group, Councillor Ian Greenwood, was today calling at the executive committee for the proposals to be dropped and replaced with a policy based entirely on need.

Coun Greenwood said he believed the £4.9 million which had to be spent by next March was being used to protect Tory strongholds in the district.

He added: "Decisions should be made in partnership with other private and public sector organisations and, most of all, by the residents of our most disadvantaged communities."

But executive member for the economy, Councillor Simon Cooke, said there were pockets of deprivation in every ward.

He said although the Council had known it was to get an award last November it had been unable to forge ahead because there had been no clear government guidance about how it should be spent.

He added the guidance had not come until May and they now had to deal with the first year's allocation quickly to avoid losing it.

He said the method of funding was expected to be reviewed after the first year.