RED-FACED MPs were forced to abandon a meeting to find out why the region is starved of research cash because only two turned up.

The embarrassment is a fresh blow to the credibility of the new North-East Select Committee, already hit by a joint boycott by the Tories and Lib Dems.

The committee was a vital part of attempts to build a successful post-recession economy in the North-East by ending the dominance of the South-East’s “golden triangle”

in lucrative research work.

Gordon Brown pledged to create regional committees within days of entering Number 10, to better scrutinise quangos that spend millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money.

But they are staffed exclusively by Labour MPs, after the Tories branded them a waste of time and the Lib Dems complained they would not be properly represented.

Across England, they cost £1.4m a year.

Yesterday’s meeting was due to question the director of the Government Office North- East on efforts to achieve a fair spread of research and development work across the country.

It follows years of complaints that the London- Oxford-Cambridge triangle grabs most of the money, partly because of the links former Oxbridge students have with Whitehall.

The meeting was cancelled because only chairwoman Dari Taylor (Stockton South) and David Anderson (Blaydon) attended. The quorum is three MPs.

Phil Wilson (Sedgefield) pulled out because he is an unpaid aide to Health Secretary Andy Burnham, who was attending an event about social care. Denis Murphy (Wansbeck) was also busy.

The committee’s original fifth member – Sharon Hodgson (Gateshead East and Washington West) – was made a Government whip in the summer. Attempts to find a replacement have failed.

Last night, Ms Taylor denied that her committee was facing a credibility crisis, and said: “The meeting will be rescheduled to take place within the next ten working days.

“I am disappointed, because this was going to be an important committee to put civil servants through some difficult questions.

“The truth is that MPs are working their hearts out and some have got up to three jobs to do.

“I would like to see the Tories and the Liberal Democrats back on board.”