MORE than 250,000 manufacturing jobs have been axed since Labour came to power, according to a new survey released to coincide with this week's TUC conference.

Research carried out for for Britain's general union, the GMB, showed that 4,300 jobs were lost in factories across the country last month alone at a rate of almost 200 a day.

Those figures include 450 lost at Ingersoll-Dresser Pumps and Silverscreen Print in Gateshead and 45 at the Barbour factory in South Shields.

The union's general secretary John Edmonds used the figures to challenge the Government over productivity.

Chancellor Gordon Brown, addressing the TUC Congress in Glasgow yesterday afternoon said that productivity has to increase to help achieve full employment.

Mr Edmonds rounded on the Government for pointing the finger at workers' productivity.

He said: "Ministers blaming working people for poor productivity is like the captain of the Titanic blaming the iceberg for colliding with his ship.

"Everyone knows that the biggest obstacle to manufacturing productivity is the level of the pound which is throwing 200 skilled and motivated workers on to the dole every working day.

"Unless the Government acts quickly over the level of sterling there won't be any manufacturing productivity left to improve.''

Since the August figures were released, a further 200 redundancies have been announced in the North-East. A merger between Compass Caravans at Langley Park and Eldiss Caravans (Consett) will see the loss of 130 jobs. Another 57 have been lost at Chamberlains Coatings in Bishop Aucklan