THE so-called ‘Northern Powerhouse’ would suffer if Britain left the European Union, Chancellor George Osborne has said.

Mr Osborne urged voters to reject “Nigel Farage’s Britain” and said the North’s “bright future” was only assuming continued membership of the EU.

The Chancellor, who was speaking in Liverpool, revealed analysis which said 117,000 new jobs would be created in the North by 2020.

However if Britain were to vote to leave there would be 119,000 fewer jobs by 2018, with youth unemployment rising by 16,000. Wages would also fall by almost three per cent in real terms.

The figures – which also linked 700,000 jobs across the North to exports to the EU – mirrored similar claims from the Treasury last month.

That said unemployment in the North-East could rise by 20,000 following a ‘Brexit’, while house prices would also be hit.

Mr Osborne said: “In my judgement, leaving the EU would put at risk the jobs, the investment and the international? interest that the Northern Powerhouse is now attracting.

“And it would be working people here in the North of England who would pay the price - in lost jobs, lower incomes and less secure family finances.”

However Charlotte Bull, branch secretary of Darlington UKIP, said much of the Chancellor’s claims could be dismissed.

She said: “The apparently precise facts and figures presented here are based on the false presumption that leaving the EU would prompt damage to our exports.

“Also, why would wages decrease? The world, not Europe, will be our biggest trade block once we leave the EU.

“We are presently forbidden to make our own trade deals and would stand to regain our seat on the World Trade Organisation when we leave.

“Europe is a declining market whereas the potential for trade with the developing wealth of our Commonwealth nations is rapidly increasing.”