THE region has been “neglected and taken for granted”

by Labour, a senior Tory claimed yesterday.

Conservative Party chairman Eric Pickles accused the Government of “thinking it can do anything it wants and people in the North-East will still vote for it”.

The MP for Brentwood, who is originally from Keighley, in West Yorkshire, made the claims during an interview yesterday with The Northern Echo.

Mr Pickles said a Tory victory at the next election was not guaranteed.

But he added: “We are looking towards increasing our members of Parliament and we will make those inroads on the basis of Labour neglect.

“Labour takes this area for granted. It thinks it can do anything it wants and the North-East will continue to vote for it.

“We’re looking for those votes and we’re looking to persuade people that the Conservative Party has the interests of the North-East at heart.”

Mr Pickles was in the region to draw up Tory election strategies with party activists.

He said: “To get a simple majority we need to take 117 seats – we’ve not achieved that since 1931.

“We require a bigger swing than Margaret Thatcher, so if you say hand on heart do you think we’re certain to win, no I’m not certain we’ll win.

“But we do want to ensure that one, two, three, four or more of the people who form the next Conservative Government come from the North-East.”

Mr Pickles said that whoever wins the election would be forced to make cuts.

“The difference between us and the Labour Party is that we’re being honest about it,” he said.

“We’re not in the business of putting people onto the scrap heap.

“That’s why we want to put the focus on training, on new apprenticeships, on 15 new technology colleges so that we can treat people on their worth and not just put them on some Mickey Mouse scheme.”

The politician denied that the North-East economy was fragile and needed special help to emerge from the recession.

He said: “I was talking to some fairly high-powered businessmen at lunchtime and they’re desperate to get cracking, desperate to get the Government and quangos off their backs.”