A CAMPAIGN will be launched today to lead efforts to attract civil service jobs to Liverpool.

Think Big Liverpool is being led by lobby group Downtown Liverpool in Business (DLIB) chairman Frank McKenna and Jon Egan, director of PR company October Communications.

It follows widescale dismay at the news the Government was looking at creating a “Whitehall of the North” in Manchester.

Yesterday, campaigners said it was time the private sector “stepped up” to support Liverpool and help make it more confident about attracting inward investment.

Liverpool Council leader Warren Bradley last night endorsed Think Big Liverpool.

He said: “All partners and sectors must be involved in this campaign if we are to send out a loud and clear message to government that civil service departments should be relocated here.”

Campaigners will first invite North West minister Beverley Hughes and shadow “minister for Merseyside” Chris Grayling to visit Liverpool to see how it is “much better placed” than Manchester to accommodate large-scale civil service relocations.