A SENIOR Conservative has said people worried about the Coalition’s austerity measures are “overdoing the gloom” – despite 6,000 North East council staff losing their jobs.

Former Tory minister John Redwood made the claims in Parliament as the Government defended multi-million pound cuts said to disproportionately hit our region. But current ministers have now been told they need to take “a reality check” before they hand out further painful spending cutbacks.

So far the funding cuts have seen 6,000 jobs go in seven North East councils, covering Durham up to Northumberland.

However Mr Redwood, a former head of Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit, said the coalition Government was putting extra cash into local Government. He claimed: “The opposition are rather overdoing the gloom.”

Housing minister Grant Shapps added to the controversy by saying the MP was “absolutely right” and had pre-empted a later section of his speech.

Last night there were calls from union leader that Mr Redwood had proven his party to be “lacking in empathy, sympathy or compassion for those losing their jobs”.

The posts axed through a mixture of redundancies and jobs being abolished, are spread out over several years. They include more than 1,000 at Northumberland County Council and a reduction of up to 930 staff at Newcastle.

Gateshead’s job losses are likely to rise by 500 to 1,500. And in Durham some 1,950 jobs are to culled.

In Wokingham, Mr Redwood’s constituency in Berkshire, the council was handed a budget cut worth just 0.65%, compared with budget reductions of more than 9% in the North East.

Wokingham borough council has made around 100 redundancies.

Last night Mick Henry, the leader of Gateshead Council, said: “It’s hardly surprising that a Wokingham MP has no concept of how the Government-imposed cuts are affecting people in the North East.

“As an example, the borough council in his constituency only saw a cut of less than £750,000 in the current financial year, while at the same time we have cuts, of well over 20 times that amount. The concept that ‘front loading’ of cuts is somehow better for councils is also quite an alarming one. Nothing could be further from the truth. Making councils face the biggest reduction in funding during the first two years of a three-year settlement means we have to cut quickly and gives us no opportunity to make savings in a phased way.

“The minister should come and explain to the people in the North East what his logic is. It seems to me that Tory ministers, past and present, need a reality check.”

Kevan Rowan, leader of the Northern TUC, said: “Redwood’s comments clearly demonstrate that the Conservatives have little interest in the North East,

“They have shown a lack of empathy, sympathy or compassion with those losing their jobs.”

Mr Redwood’s office declined to comment further.