AN EAST Lancashire MP has called for a 'northern Parliament' after accusing the Government of abandoning the north.

Hyndburn and Haslingden MP Graham Jones said the difference in job losses between the north and the south showed that the Tory Government was not doing enough.

Mr Jones said he wanted powers devolved from Westminster to the north, through a northern assembly or Parliament.

“I believe that the north of England has always been short changed by the Conservative Government, in the 80s and now,” he said.

“They are abandoning the north.

“We have got a different identity to the south and the devolution of powers to Wales and Scotland has worked well. People have the right to self-determine.

“It is time for a devolved administration and time to take powers away from Whitehall and hand them to an axis of Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester.”

In the north west, 44,000 more people are unemployed compared to this time last year, a rise of 16.9 per cent. In the whole of the north around 98,000 people have lost their jobs this year, an 18 per cent rise, compared to a rise of just 4.5 per cent in the rest of the country.

Mr Jones joined five other Labour MPs to call for a devolution of power to the north. They are patrons of the Hannah Mitchell Foundation, which is a new think tank established to campaign for an elected assembly.

Mr Jones accused the Government of creating policies to hurt the north.

He said: “Every Tory Government policy is designed to hurt the north, and we are seeing that in the job figures for the north.

“We have got to find a way out of high unemployment and this is the only way, all the facts and figures point to the case that Westminster does not care at all about the north.”

Jack Straw, MP for Blackburn and former Home Secretary, said: “England is over-centralised. The problem is agreeing the form of devolution.

“The Labour Government tried to introduce regional assemblies and we had a referendum on it, starting in the North East where the support was greatest, but it got defeated.

“Most people agree that there should be more powers moved from Westminster and Whitehall to the regions, but very few agree on how it should be devolved.

“I have long believed in the devolution of some powers, but we have tried assemblies. Maybe there is now a ground swell of support for that. I would like to see some regional assemblies.”