THE government is set to slash its presence in Liverpool by moving more than 40 key civil service jobs to Manchester.

The Government Office North West (GONW) will surrender the lease on its offices in the Cunard building in 2011 and move staff to Manchester, leaving just eight behind in new premises.

Unions fear the transfer of work away from Liverpool means a permanent government presence of any significance will be lost to Merseyside.

In 2003, officials pledged to move 2,000 civil service jobs to Liverpool.

Four years later, it was revealed 514 jobs were transferred to the city - but 700 were lost.

Last night, GONW said it had a responsibility to deliver “best value” for the taxpayer.

It said its decision to scale down its Liverpool presence was the result of responsibility for European programmes being transferred to the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA).

But Liverpool councillor Steve Radford, who has taken up the issue, said moving so many jobs to Manchester would be counter-productive and the city needed a GONW presence to assist its economic growth.

Last night’s revelation followed wide-scale dismay that the government was looking at creating a “Whitehall of the North” in Manchester.

That prompted the creation of a campaign, Think Big Liverpool, to persuade the government to relocate civil service jobs to Merseyside.

Last night, campaigners said the news was “certainly not positive” and efforts needed to be redoubled.

The Liverpool office of GONW takes its roots from the Merseyside Task Force set up in 1983 in response to the 1981 Toxteth riots.

The organisation underwent a number of incarnations before becoming the Government Office for Merseyside, which merged into GONW in 1998.