Top Tory warns of southern bias

MINISTERS have been warned by a senior Tory peer not to become “southern-centric” in seeking to revive the economy, as Prime Minister David Cameron defended his growth plans.

Baroness Warsi, the Dewsbury-born Tory co-chairman, said protecting the region from the worst impact of spending cuts was “personal” for her because she has experienced the “tragedy” of growing up in a family affected by unemployment.

As Mr Cameron this weekend unveiled plans to boost housebuilding and rejected criticism of his growth plan – including from Andrew Tyrie, the Tory chairman of the powerful Treasury Select Committee – Baroness Warsi said the Government was putting in place the “building blocks” for a more stable economy but warned it would not happen immediately.

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She told the Yorkshire Post: “I still remember when my dad lost his job and he came home and they had those hushed discussions you knew something was wrong, you weren’t old enough to understand but you knew you had to behave for the next many many weeks because you were going to get into serious trouble because there was something wrong at home,”

“It is a tragedy. It changes the way in which you see so many things in life. We’ve got to do all we can to make sure that every job that’s lost is replaced in some way. But that’s not going to happen immediately.

“What we can do is start putting the building blocks in place for a stable economy going forwards where we aren’t just relying on a house price boom and a service sector based on the city of London.”

Baroness Warsi was speaking at the start of the Tory conference in Manchester. Addressing delegates she called for them to fight for an outright Tory majority in 2015 when the next General Election is due to take place.

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With the stuttering economy at the top of the political agenda, she defended the coalition’s decision to stand by its programme of spending cuts and insisted the Government is focused on growth, despite calls from business leaders and political opponents for Ministers to do more.

And after the Yorkshire Post published 60 ideas on Saturday which could help the Government fulfil its promise of tackling the North-South divide, Baroness Warsi insisted the coalition was seeking to protect the North from the worst of the cuts, saying she took “straight-talking commonsense” to discussions at the Cabinet table.

She said: “One of the things I know is that when we sit around that Cabinet table the conversations we have about making sure the regions are protected making sure that we support local authorities in a way that those who have got more deprived communities in their areas have a larger per head settlement rather than better off areas in the UK.

“For me, it is quite personal. I was born and raised and grew up in Yorkshire, I still live there, still come home there every weekend. It’s important we don’t get southern-centric.

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“That’s why I can assure you whether it’s the Regional Growth Fund, Local Enterprise Partnerships, the support for certain capital infrastructure projects, that is always there at the top of my mind to make sure we’re supporting the protecting the regions.”

After Labour called the Government to rethink its economic approach last week, Mr Cameron dismissed criticism of the Government’s growth strategy insisting it was “firing up the engines of the British economy” and said he would not be diverted from his deficit reduction plan.

He unveiled plans to boost housebuilding by reviving the right-to-buy DEAL and releasing Government-owned land as signs of action after Mr Tyrie said the Government’s economic response lacked a “coherent and credible” plan for growth.

Mr Cameron rejected the notion that the Government is “sitting back” and suggested that as many as 200,000 extra homes and 400,000 extra jobs could be created under the twin-pronged housing strategy.

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Thousands of acres of publicly-owned brownfield land are to be released by the Government for housebuilding, in a bid to support growth and improve affordability in the housing market.

Cash-strapped developers will be given the opportunity to pay for the land later, when properties are sold, thereby by-passing the lack of upfront finance.

Whitehall departments have been instructed to publish plans of previously developed land and empty offices that they can release for housebuilding.

Cameron offers apology to women MPs

Prime Minister David Cameron today offered an apology to two women MPs for comments he made about them in the House of Commons, as he acknowledged that the Government needed to do more to attract women voters.

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Mr Cameron sparked outrage from Labour when he told the party’s Treasury spokeswoman Angela Eagle to “calm down, dear” during an exchange at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons.

And he was criticised for telling the Commons that one of his own MPs, Nadine Dorries, was “extremely frustrated” and then appearing to join in the laughter which his double entendre provoked on the Tory backbenches. Yesterday, he told the Sunday Times he had “screwed up” in the exchanges.

“If I offended anyone, I am hugely sorry. That is not what I wanted to do,” he said.

He added: “It’s my fault. I’ve got to do better, I totally accept. I’m the one who’s got to explain who I am and what I’m like and what I think.

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“What I find frustrating is that I’m not a sort of ‘All right luv, I’m down at the pub tonight’ whatever. That’s not me. But obviously I’ve come across in this way.”

Mr Cameron later told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show: “I obviously said some things in the House of Commons that just came out wrong and caused the wrong impression and I deeply regret that.

“This is not an excuse, it’s an explanation, but...Prime Minister’s Questions is very aggressive, confrontational. That’s what Prime Minister’s Questions is like and I don’t think you can change it actually.

“As a result sometimes it just sounds terrible. And so I apologise for that. That’s not what I’m like, it’s not who I am, and I wanted to try and put that right. But I recognise – must do better.”

Mr Cameron said he knew that women were often the people who were struggling to balance family finances at a time of economic difficulties.