Tory leadership contender Rishi Sunak has told party members he should be Prime Minister because he redirected money from "deprived urban areas" into places like Tunbridge Wells.

The former Chancellor said the party had "inherited funding formulas from the Labour party that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas. That needed to be redone and I started the work of doing that."

The comments were recorded in a video leaked by the New Statesman magazine.

He said: “I managed to change the funding formulas so areas like this are getting the funding they need because we inherited funding formulas from the Labour Party that shoved all the funding into deprived areas. That needed to be undone and I started to do it.”

Mr Sunak is trying to step up support for his faltering campaign.

With opinion polls suggesting that the gap is widening between him and rival contender Liz Truss, Mr Sunak is trying to claw back support for his bid with an announcement of a flurry of measures on housing.

It is his third visit Kent, having previously been to Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks, as he vies to become the next PM.

Mrs Truss embarked on a whistle-stop tour of Kent herself a fortnight ago.

He was expected to unveil reforms to the planning system that go some way to addressing disquiet over the ability of developers to ignore any reservations made by local residents.

He says that under his leadership, local communities will be given a new ‘infrastructure first guarantee’.

The measure will ensure that new homes must be supported by new infrastructure to avoid putting pressure on existing local services.

Councils will be able to raise enough from the new ‘Infrastructure Levy’ to ensure enough GPs and school places, along with roads, can be delivered ahead of new housing being delivered, not afterwards.

And developers would be required to build on land which already has planning permission locally first, before they are granted more permissions in the same area.

There have been suggestions Sunak is under pressure to consider whether he should continue with his campaign in view of the apparent support for his rival Liz Truss.

Sunak has dismissed the idea and ahead of his latest visit to Kent, said: “As Conservatives, we are the standard bearers for capitalism because we know it is the only way to deliver a better tomorrow for our children and grandchildren. But we can’t expect those future generations to share our belief in capitalism if they can’t get their hands on capital.

“That’s why I will do whatever it takes to build housing that is affordable and plentiful, while protecting the green belt - spreading the joy and fulfilment of home ownership, building the next generation of Conservative voters and keeping Labour out of power.”