Cuts to local government funding are hitting the most deprived areas of the UK the hardest, the Labour party has said at the launch of its local elections campaign in Stoke-on-Trent.

Figures compiled by the party show that local authorities’ spending power per household will fall by an average of 23% in 2019-20 compared with 2009-10 – a drop of £254. Yet, nine of the 10 most deprived councils in the country have seen cuts of almost three times this national average.

The Labour party chairman, Ian Lavery MP, said that all 10 of the most deprived councils are Labour controlled, including Jeremy Corbyn’s constituency of Islington, and Diane Abbott’s in Hackney.

Lavery said: “Local government and the vital public services they provide have been hollowed out by savage Tory cuts that have hit the poorest hardest. People are paying much more for their council taxes and getting much less.”

He was joined by Abbott at the launch at Staffordshire University. Abbott condemned Theresa May’s handling of the Brexit negotiations so far. “Theresa May is bold as brass, blaming members of parliament over the mess we’re in over Brexit. But it was she who has driven these negotiations at every stage – if Theresa May wants to know why Brexit is such a mess, she needs to look in the mirror.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, did not attend the launch event as he was in Brussels ‘fixing Brexit’. Photograph: Aris Oikonomou/AFP/Getty Images

Abbott’s comments were reflected by Angela Rayner, MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, who referenced cuts to local government that had left funding for youth services and adult social care “decimated”, prompting Monday’s damning Ofsted report of children’s services in the area. She said: “I’m bored of being in opposition – the Tories know the cost of everything and the value of nothing, but we want to bring our communities together.”

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Stoke-on-Trent voted to leave the EU with a majority of 69.4% in the 2016 referendum, leading the former Ukip leader Paul Nuttall to name it the Brexit capital of Britain during his attempt to win the Stoke-on-Trent by-election in 2017. The town has since become a battleground for both Labour and the Conservatives, with May making her speech from Stoke’s Portmeirion pottery on the eve of the first parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal in January.

Corbyn was noticeably absent at the Labour announcement, being in Brussels and “fixing Brexit”, according to Lavery. Referencing reports of Corbyn walking out of a meeting with May on Wednesday evening, Lavery said: “Jeremy spoke to Theresa May almost immediately after the meeting last night. There was a lengthy conversation and Jeremy put a whole number of points to Theresa May. The reality is Jeremy is trying to resolve this in the best interests of everybody.”

Local elections take place on 2 May. Labour will be hoping to win back its traditional stronghold of Stoke-on-Trent, which was lost in the 2015 local elections.