Angela Rayner accuses Tories of leaving Blackpool 'out in the cold' as resort hosts Labour's North West Regional Conference at the Winter Gardens

She branded Tory levelling up ‘a lie’ with Labour saying its analysis shows twice as many people are out of work in Blackpool due to long-term sickness than the national average.

Ms Rayner, who was due to address Labour’s North West Regional Conference at the Winter Gardens, accused the government of letting local people down by overseeing an unproductive, unhappy and undervalued workforce.

Ahead of her speech, she said: “In Blackpool, fewer people are in the workforce than the national average with the proportion of people out of work due to long-term sickness nearly double the national rate.

“What does it say about the state of Britain that where you are born dictates your health?

“Blackpool has been left out in the cold by the Conservatives, along with the rest of the Red Wall.

“These communities have been forgotten by this government, used as a bargaining chip to get onto power, and tossed aside at the first opportunity.”

Ms Rayner, who is also shadow secretary of state for levelling up, added: “Labour has a plan to grow every corner of our country and build a better Blackpool.”

But Blackpool North and Cleveleys Conservative MP Paul Maynard hit back at the claims and said his party was helping residents in the town.

He said: “It is important as many people as possible are able to contribute to our local economy, which is why we need to help them back into work.

“That is precisely what the measures unveiled by the Government in the Autumn Statement are designed to achieve, to focus on how people can find employment rather than on the reasons they might not.

“Labour is happy to leave people on benefits while the Conservatives want to help them get back into employment.

“The Conservative Government is spending millions on regeneration and Levelling Up in Northern communities and I’m proud that Blackpool is the flagship.

“We are spending £150m on schemes across the town, designed to boost employment, training and education opportunities.

“It is funding I have worked hard to secure and it is disappointing Labour wants to talk down our town.”

Blackpool South Conservative MP Scott Benton said: “Since being elected I’ve helped to bring in over £400m in extra government funding to Blackpool - the highest amount of any town in England.

"After being forgotten by the Labour Party for years, Blackpool is rightly at the top of this government’s agenda and we’ve received the funding to prove it.”

Labour says its research, based on figures from the ONS Annual Population Survey, July 2022 – June 2023 for 16 to 64-year-olds, shows Blackpool residents are almost two times more likely to be out of the workforce because of long-term sickness than the rest of the country.

Overall, 25.4 per cent of working-age people in Blackpool are economically inactive, compared to 21.2 per cent for England and 21.5 per cent for the UK as a whole.

In Blackpool, 10,500 of 20,800 economically inactive people are out of work because of long-term sickness (50.6 per cent). For the UK as a whole, the figure is 26.9 per cent.

Only one area in England, Stoke-on-Trent is worse hit, with 51.4 per cent of economically inactive people out of work because of long-term sickness.