Croydon's two Conservative MPs "should be ashamed to show their faces" in the borough after last night's Commons vote on local government funding, according to the Labour MP for Croydon North.

But Gavin Barwell, Tory MP for Croydon Central, hit back by labelling Steve Reed a "joke figure".

Mr Barwell and Croydon South MP Chris Philp were among 315 MPs to vote in favour of the proposed local government finance settlement, which includes a 56 per cent cut to the revenue support grant paid to councils.

The settlement also includes a £300m 'transitional fund' intended to ease the pressure on councils in the first two years of the imposed cutbacks.

But figures obtained by Mr Reed show that 83 per cent of councils that will receive the extra cash are Conservative-run, leading him to denounce the fund as a "blatant misuse of public money".

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Croydon's Labour council will receive £800,000 from the deal, while neighbouring Surrey - a Tory-led council - will get £24.1m, the highest in the country.

Following yesterday's vote, which saw the settlement approved by 315 votes to 209, Mr Reed, shadow minister for local government, said: "Instead of giving [the money] to areas that have suffered the biggest cuts, the Government has given it to wealthier Tory areas that have had the least cuts since 2010.

"Croydon got next to nothing, but leafy Surrey just over the border got a whopping £24 million. Instead of joining me in voting against this stitch-up, Croydon’s two Tory MPs voted to send the money to Surrey while Croydon loses £45m in cuts.

"They should be ashamed to show their faces in Croydon after letting us down like this.”

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Croydon is one of only 17 Labour councils among the 187 local authorities set to benefit from the relief fund.

Croydon Council’s annual Government funding settlement will be slashed by £44.7m by 2020, from £132m in 2015/2016 to £87.3m in 2019/2020.

Mr Barwell, MP for Croydon Central, said: "I think Steve Reed is a bit of a joke figure. It's a ridiculous thing to say, I'm not really interested in responding to things like that.

"What I would say is that at the last general election Ed Balls [former Labour shadow chancellor] was asked whether there would be more money [for local government] and he said no, so if Steve Reed was a minister now he would be voting for a very similar deal."

Mr Barwell, who is the assistant Government whip, dismissed suggestions that up to 30 Tory MPs had threatened to revolt against the Government over the finance settlement prior to Monday's announcement of the relief fund.

He said: "I certainly didn't have any MPs in my flock threatening to do that."

Mr Philp has been contacted for comment.

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During last night's Commons debate Mr Reed was forced to admit a geographical mix-up after he mistakenly said Tunbridge Wells was in Surrey, not Kent.

He was picked up on the error by Greg Clark, the minister responsible for the finance settlement, who is the MP for Royal Tunbridge Wells.

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