Boris Johnson has promised to spend an extra £2 billion on Britain’s deprived towns and coastal communities, saying he wants every part of the country to see the “opportunities of Brexit”.

The new fund, to be shared initially between 100 towns, is an expansion of the £1.6 billion previously allocated for their regeneration.

In a speech in Manchester today, the prime minister’s first in his new job outside London , Mr Johnson said politicians had failed people in less successful parts of Britain and insisted his government would look for “creative” ways to boost such areas.

He told an audience at the city’s Science and Industry Museum: “The centre of Manchester, like the centre of London, is a wonder of the world. A few miles