Tory chairman on whistlestop tour (From The Northern Echo)

Tory chairman on whistlestop tour

10:33am Thursday 22nd April 2010 in

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CONSERVATIVE Party chairman Eric Pickles promised voters the Tories will not neglect the North-East if the party wins the General Election.

Yorkshireman Mr Pickles, who has been MP for Brentwood and Ongar in Essex since 1992, visited four of the Conservatives’ target towns in the North-East yesterday.

His tour included Darlington and North Shields, in the North Tyneside constituency, where he spoke with businesses and voters.

He also joined the campaign trail with local party activists in Yarm, near Stockton, and Sunderland.

Mr Pickles said he was visiting the four target seats as the Conservatives tried to make inroads into the North- East.

The North Yorkshire seats are split between the three main parties with the Conservatives dominating, but Labour hold all the seats in the North-East except for Berwick (Lib Dem) and Hexham (Con).

He admitted Labour had held a monopoly in the region for many years, but added that the party had taken such support for granted and neglected the area.

Mr Pickles said: “The North-East made this country what it is. It built things, it did things and the railways are from here.

“The Conservatives guarantee not to neglect the area.”

He said the Conservatives would give people in the region more power, the ability to hold their MPs to account and the chance to decide on the future of regional spatial strategy and of its regional development agency, One North East.