The Gap between The North East And Other Regions Has Grown Under Labour

Labour take the North East of England for granted. They regard us as their natural heartland and are happy to ignore us when it comes to major decisions about infrastructure and public spending. We have been worst hit by Gordon Brown's recession and, only last week, unemployment continued to rise both in the North East and in North Durham.

An organisation called the Centre for Cities has produced what it calls a 'Cities Outlook' . One of the stark findings from the report was that the gap between the North East and other parts of the country has grown over the past 13 years. This is illustrated by the chart above, taken from Page 18 of the Cities Outlook. It shows that, in the past 13 years the gap between the North East and the rest of the country has grown. As the report points out, between 1997 and 2008, real GVA in London increased by 61%, compared with only 32% in the North East.

Despite having 27 of the North East's 29 MPs, Labour have done nothing to help the North East economy. We need urgent action in our region to close the gap with other regions and overtake them. The vision and leadership that is needed is, quite simply, not being provided by a Labour elite that has lost touch with its roots and isn't doing enough for our region.