WORCESTER City's exile has been slammed by a shadow Government minister - who called it "bonkers".

Shadow Culture, Media and Sport minister Chris Bryant visited the city today, injecting some passion into Labour's General Election campaign by criticising the plight of non-league football clubs.

The former priest, who served in Gordon Brown's Government, went to Worcester Arts Workshop in Sansome Street where he pledged to make sure areas like Worcestershire get a better cultural deal.

The 53-year-old said too much spending on the arts is sucked into London at the expense of Britain's regions, and insisted not enough reaches the grassroots.

He also told your Worcester News when it comes to sport, clubs like City are suffering because the Coalition has allowed Premier League greed to spiral.

"I don't think any club should be exiled from an area because of planning issues, or rows or anything like that, it's bonkers that this happens," he said.

"The current football deal (for television rights) is massive, it's something like £2.4 billion - it's ludicrous that you can have Premier League clubs with players on £100,000 a week, and non-league clubs are struggling.

"If you got just five per cent of that money and put it into the other end it would help - I think it's something Labour instinctively wants to change.

"In 2010 we were close to a deal with the Premier League but since then I'd say the Government has been treading water with this issue.

"Football is very rich, it doesn't need any money from taxpayers, we've just got to change how it operates."

City FC left it's old St George's Lane ground in 2013 and has been exiled at Kidderminster since, although a planning application has been submitted to Worcester City Council for a new 4,100 capacity ground at Perdiswell.

Mr Bryant also hit out at arts funding, saying one third of all the national spend goes to London, where funding is "£70 per head" compared to £4 per head elsewhere.

"One in 12 UK jobs are in the creative industries and it's worth £76 billion, so we know how important arts and culture is to the economy," he said.

"But a third of the money goes to museums and galleries in London, we need to change that and re-balance that cash."

He also said a Labour Government would "guarantee every child gets a proper artistic and cultural education", insisting it could be done by preventing Ofsted from marking any school as outstanding without it.

During the visit, accompanied by Labour's parliamentary candidate Councillor Joy Squires, he also hit out cuts to council budgets and said the black market for ticket sales needs to be tackled.

Worcester Arts Workshop, a unique arts 'hub' and registered charity, offers theatre and music performances, education, independent film and rooms for hire.

It is also home to Cafe Bliss and Vamos Theatre, which offers full mask performances in the UK and abroad.