LEVELLING UP ...DONE FROM DOWN SOUTH

Anger as most staff in London

- CHRIS WHITE AND JACK CLOVER

BORIS Johnson's drive to help the country's poorest areas was branded a joke as 66% of the staff are based in London.

The Levelling Up department is supposed to spread "opportunity and prosperity around the UK".

But 2,261 out of its 3,436 jobs are based in the capital.

A small minority are in the most deprived regions - 3% in the North East, 5.6% in the North West, and 3.5% in Yorkshire and Humber.

Only 2.4% 82 people work for the department in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.