VOTERS in the North East would welcome a regional assembly, it was claimed last night.

Former Cabinet Minister Peter Hain said the “English question” in terms of devolution had never been answered and had left a “festering sore”.

But the Labour MP for Neath suggested that after 18 months of coalition cuts, the region was now ready to take on new powers.

He has been backed by senior Labour peer Jeremy Beecham, a front bench spokesman and past chairman of the party’s national executive committee.

He said the region was being held back by a fragmented structure and supported the transfer of major powers to a regional assembly.

Mr Hain said during a talk at the London School of Economics: “It could be a regional government in the North East of England – rejected, I know, in 2004 but rejected on a kind of Mickey Mouse offer where the powers were not really real and the timing wasn’t right.

“Under a Tory-led Government, I think we could easily win that referendum now.”

Ian Mearns, MP for Gateshead and former chairman of the campaign for a North East assembly, said the region needed a “strong voice” to take on an increasingly powerful Scotland and a distant Whitehall.

He said the region was in direct competition with Scotland, adding: “They have got the power and the wherewithal to deal with it, whereas we are reliant on central government.”

He said local enterprise partnerships, bringing together business and council chiefs to boost the economy, lacked money.

That was compounded by the geographical distance from London that made it harder for the region to attract inward investment. The Labour MP added: “I think we have got to seriously look at how the North East can cope with all of this with a strong voice working on behalf of the region, and that could include a serious re-examination of regional government.”

But Mr Mearns claimed the Government would not offer anything like what was needed.

Lord Beecham, a former leader of Newcastle City Council and a serving member of the authority, said: “I would support it, if we can get our act together in the region and make the case convincingly across the private and public sector and preferably politically as well, across the parties.

“I think Labour and the Liberal Democrats would support it. I am not sure about what the few residual Tories would do.”

He predicted a growing feeling that the current structure would not meet the region’s needs and suggested an assembly be handed wide-ranging powers over economic development, transport and planning as well as health matters.

North East Liberal Democrat peer John Shipley, an adviser to Cities Minister Greg Clark, said: “I suspect that a referendum for regional assemblies in England would fail even in the North East. The electorate made their views very clear a few years ago.”

An English parliament was not the answer because it would be too big, said Lord Shipley, a serving Newcastle councillor. He argued for power to be devolved to different parts of England and for dependency on Whitehall to be reduced. “The future seems to be around city regions and shire counties,” Lord Shipley added.

“The Government is devolving increasingly to city regions and the large urban areas. Inevitably, the shire counties will follow.”