Prime Minister Tony Blair has said the job losses at Black & Decerk are a "tragedy" for the workers.

Speaking at a press conference at the Labour Party Conference in Blackpool, Tony Blair pledged that the Government would work ''very closely'' with workers losing their jobs to help them find other employment and to make sure they were ''properly looked after''.

''This is the nature of the international economy,'' he added.

The Prime Minister pointed out that jobs had been lost in the north east in recent years at leading companies including Siemens and Fujitsu but new manufacturing had been attracted to the region.