GORDON Brown yesterday branded campaigners against a regional assembly as "London Tories" with no real interest in the North-East.

The Chancellor made the sideswipe as he was on his second visit to the region in as many weeks to support the Yes4The North-East campaign.

"The only people running a 'No' campaign with any great enthusiasm are London Conservatives," he said.

Mr Brown was visiting the Leighton Group, an award-winning Internet company on the Doxford International Business Park, near Sunderland.

John Elliott, chairman of anti-assembly group North-East Says No, said: "The Yes campaign is losing the argument, which is why politicians like Gordon Brown prefer to make party political attacks, rather than explain to North-East voters why they should back an assembly with no powers to take on even one extra nurse, doctor or teacher.

"He should spend more time focusing on the issues, not on this sort of unpleasant politics."

Mr Brown promised the assembly would control £1bn worth of public spending in its first year.

While this is to increase every year to 2008, the Chancellor admitted that the money would still be pumped into the North-East, even if the referendum returned a 'No' for a regional assembly.

"The money will come, through the Regional Development Agency (RDA), One NorthEast and regional offices of the various Government departments," he said.

"But the money will be better spent if there is this co-ordination through the North-East Assembly."

He said the body would help bridge the yawning North-South economic divide.

"With its own assembly, the North-East could set its own priorities and work with central government to deliver more jobs, more growth and a better quality of life," he said.

"With economic stability, new investment and the right kind of regional policy, the North-East can become more competitive, productive and prosperous as we close regional divides."

Managers at the Leighton Group, said they wanted an assembly partly to make One NorthEast more accountable.

Finance director Steve Nelson said: "In principle, we all believe that the RDA is a good thing, but we have reservations on how it is being managed at the moment.

"If it is reporting to a directly elected assembly, then we have some degree of control over that."

North-East Says No issued a statement from 12 North-East businessmen, including Clive Rook, managing director of chartered surveyors Rook, Matthews Sayer, and Duncan Davidson, chairman of Persimmon.

It stated: "A regional assembly would not be able to adopt an economic plan that central Government disagreed with, or even one that put the North-East Assembly at an economic advantage to neighbouring regions."

Commenting on the letter, Ian Dormer, director of Rosh Engineering, said: "Gordon Brown is out of touch with business in the region.

"Businesses here are overwhelmingly opposed to an assembly as they can see that it just means more politicians and bureaucrats but no power to actually help business. The time has come for politicians to stop making claims that simply don't stand up to the slightest scrutiny."

Senior Citizens Party states reasons for switching to 'No'

A KEY supporter of a Yes vote in next month's referendum yesterday switched sides.

The Senior Citizens Party, a registered permitted participant with the Yes 4 The North East campaign, has switched sides to the People's North-East No campaign.

The party is a lobby group for the over-50s, which makes up about 800,000 out of 1.9m potential voters in the regional assembly vote.

It has publicly come out against an assembly because the local government shake-up it would bring could result in the abolition of district councils and the creation of a county-wide unitary authority for Durham.

Grahame Leon-Smith, founder and party leader, said: "We thought initially it was going to be devolution and more democracy for the people, because that is what has happened in Scotland and Wales.

"The Government is now proposing that whole counties should become unitary authorities.

"It is a thoroughly hypocritical scenario disguised as an increase in democracy which will increase centralisation and removes the very local councils that the people know and appreciate.

"We are therefore now recommending that seniors vote with a resounding No to this appalling attempt to destroy local democracy."

He joined Neil Herron, campaign director of North East No, at Stepney Bank Stables, in Newcastle, to launch his party's support for a no vote.

Mr Herron said: "Our long standing arguments are winning through. We may have been seen at the start of the race as a rank outsider up against a very well funded and well trained Government-backed horse. But it can be seen that the Government's fancied favourite was nothing more than a donkey."

Yes4TheNorth-East campaign director, Ross Forbes, accused the Senior Citizens Party of a pre-planned stunt. "It's true that the Senior Citizens Party registered as supporters of the Yes campaign, but they have not responded to any of our attempts to contact them and have played no part in the campaign," he said.