Sir Keir Starmer says there’s no ‘magic money tree’ for cash-strapped councils despite ‘appalling situation’

SIR Keir Starmer has said there is no “magic money tree” for cash-strapped councils.

Despite acknowledging the “appalling situation” of town halls going broke, the Labour leader warned: “I can’t pretend we can turn the taps on.”

If the party wins power it will inherit a situation where one in five local authorities say they risk bankruptcy.

Sir Keir also praised Boris Johnson’s vision to “level up” Britain but accused his then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak of having “killed it at birth”.

He said Labour would take forward the “good ambition” with better execution to get more money away from Westminster.

Speaking at the same local elections launch in Dudley, deputy leader Angela Rayner said the word “levelling up” is like “a car that’s been nicked and left behind the garage, while the Tories have legged it out the passenger door”.

It comes as  Rayner refused growing calls to publish the legal advice around the sale of her former council house.

In a tetchy interview, the deputy Labour leader was grilled about the £45,000 profit she made from the property 15 years ago.

Manchester Police last night also announced they were reassessing its decision not to investigate whether she gave false details on official documents.

Ms Rayner insists she did “nothing wrong” when she did not pay tax on the profit because it was her “main home”.

But neighbours claimed she had really been living in her then husband’s house with her kids and even described herself as the “landlady”.

Urged to come clean by publishing the full advice she received, the Labour deputy today refused four times.

She hit back on the BBC: “I’m confident I’ve done nothing wrong. I don’t need to publish all of my details.”