DAVID Cameron has been promoting the North-East car making industry to business leaders in New York.

After George Osborne invited Chinese firms to win contracts in the UK during his Asian trade mission last week, the Prime Minister met major US businesses including Amazon, JP Morgan Chase and Thomson Reuters, to promote the Northern Powerhouse idea.

Mr Cameron told them: "A new job is created in the north of England every six and a half minutes. It is also home to at least 23 universities – all brimming with development opportunities and in Sunderland alone, they make more cars than the whole of Italy.

"I want to build on these successes and make the north of England a global powerhouse – so we can truly rebalance our economy and spread opportunity across the country.

"That is exactly why I am using my time here in America to speak about the immense opportunities in the north of England to some of the world’s biggest businesses."