FEARS of “political bias” were sparked today by the revelation that government ministers distributed billions of pounds of public money to towns in England following a murky selection process.

In a damning report, the cross-party Commons public accounts committee said the process of choosing which communities would benefit from the £3.6 billion Towns Fund was “not impartial.”

The MPs added that the process risked undermining the Civil Service’s integrity.

Ministers in the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) had picked towns using “scant” evidence and “sweeping assumptions,” the report said.

Committee chairwoman Meg Hillier said that the “opaque” system gave “every appearance of having been politically motivated.”

Earlier this year, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick denied having any role in selecting his Newark constituency for a £25 million grant under the scheme, despite having boasted about it during last year’s general election campaign.

Mr Jenrick said that the award had been signed off by then communities minister Jake Berry, while he had approved a grant for Darwen in Mr Berry’s constituency.

After the scheme’s launch in July last year, MHCLG officials drew up a list of 541 towns, ranked in order of priority according to need and potential for development, for ministers to choose from.

While the top 40 “high-priority” locations were all confirmed, ministers then picked 61 “medium and low-priority” communities from across the rest of the list, including one ranked 536th.

The committee said it was “not convinced” by some of the “weak” reasons given.

MHCLG permanent secretary Jeremy Pocklington insisted he was satisfied that the requirements of “propriety and regularity” had been met, but the committee said it was “disappointed” that a summary of his assessment remained unpublished.

An MHCLG spokesman said that the department “completely disagrees” with the criticism, claiming that the selection process was “comprehensive, robust and fair.”