AN MP has demanded more Lottery grants for village halls and war veterans after claiming they have lost out to more "politically correct" causes.

The Ribble Valley's Nigel Evans wants the rules of the Community Fund, which distributes millions of pounds of Lotto cash, rewritten to end what he sees as discrimination.

The Tory front bencher has backed a lobby of Parliament and the Government by the National Village Halls Forum which has seen its lottery funding slashed from £32million to £17million.

At the same time money has gone to groups supporting asylum seekers and other minorities who are mounting legal challenges against the Government.

He said that with many rural services such as Post Offices being cut, village halls were becoming even more important and deserving of support.

And he wants to see war veterans groups given grants as Remembrance Sunday approaches.

Mr Evans said: "With the accelerating demise of Post Offices under the present Government, our village halls are becoming an increasingly vital resource for the Ribble Valley community life.

"Yet they are facing a series of new burdens, such as fire, access and health and safety regulations. Many built in the 1930s onwards, are also in need of extensive renovation.

"However, the National Lottery's Community Fund has slashed funding for village halls, and has diverted resources to highly controversial political causes.

"Such political donations are damaging the reputation of the Lottery and harming all charities.

"We want more funding to support the creation and renovation of village halls across the Ribble Valley -- rather than see money wasted on controversial political campaigning.

"As we approach Remembrance Sunday, I call upon the Community Fund to fast track the applications it has received from organisations working with war veterans.

"The Fund should right the terrible bias it has shown recently and make a major award to the people who fought to protect our freedom."

A spokeswoman for The Community Fund rejected Mr Evans claims that it discriminated against either village halls or war veterans and said all decisions on grants were made on the merits of each bid.

She said: "We judge all applications on their merits. We do not discriminate against war veterans. Older people are one of our priorities. Grants to groups working with older people will be increased in the future.''

The spokeswoman said that The Community Fund recognised that village halls could be vital to rural communities.

She said that since 1995, 28 per cent of its funding, some £645 million, had been awarded in grants for projects in rural areas throughout the UK.

This includes £109 million for the building, extension and improvement of 2,271 village halls.

However, she continued, the Community Fund was faced with declining income and because of this it has had to decide on a regional basis what its funding priorities were.