SENIOR Tories last night rallied round Conservative leader Michael Howard after he appeared to dismiss the party vote in the North-East.

Mr Howard told reporters at the Conservative Party conference that it could win the next election without winning seats in the region's urban centres.

He later tried to backtrack by saying the party was selling its message to every part of the country, but nevertheless his comments have been interpreted by opponents as the party giving up on areas of the North-East.

Last night, Peter Wood, the Conservative leader on Sunderland City Council, said Mr Howard was merely being realistic about the party's chances in the North-East.

He said: "He is still talking about winning the next General Election, but we have to accept that the target seats will not be in the North-East.

"I have no problem with what has been said. Clearly, the North-East is difficult terrain at the moment for the Conservative Party and at the next election that will probably be the same.

"But we are building our strength up here. In Sunderland we are increasing the number of Conservative councillors and party members. The message has to be that we are still alive and well in the North-East and gradually will get stronger."

At present, only one Tory MP resides in the North-East, Hexham MP Peter Atkinson, while in some areas, such as Newcastle and Gateshead, it does not have a single councillor.

The Conservatives were also beaten into fourth place at the Hartlepool by-election by the UK Independence Party.

The party was accused of taking too long to select its candidate, Jeremy Middleton, and not taking the election seriously enough.

Anthony Frieze, the prospective Conservative Party candidate for Darlington, said: "We are not happy about the situation that exists in some areas, but there is certainly no complacency or writing off our chances in any part of the country.

"There are a lot of initiatives that we are taking to improve our position, particularly in the inner cities.

"In places like Newcastle, for instance, we have re- organised the Conservative association's structure to provide more resources and get more people on the ground more regularly."

A Conservative Party spokesman said: "The point that Michael Howard was making is that numerically no party needs to win every single seat in the country to form a majority.

"That said, we are, and always will be, a party that tries to represent the whole of the country."