NORTH West Minister Beverley Hughes was last night accused of classic but crude Whitehall tactics when claiming hundreds of civil servant jobs had been created in Liverpool.

The minister wrote to the Daily Post claiming more than 1,650 jobs had been moved to Liverpool, but her department refused to say how many jobs had been lost.

The Daily Post estimates that, when current known job losses are taken into account, the Liverpool region will only have seen an additional 617 jobs.

Last night, Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle said he could not accept that Mrs Hughess department could not provide the figures.

He said: This is a classic but crude Whitehall tactic.

She knows as well as I do that the lost jobs must be offset against the new jobs for us to have an adequate picture of the situation, and frankly I cant accept that she cannot provide the figures.

Liverpool Council leader Warren Bradley said the Labour government had consistently failed to deliver on its promise to decentralise jobs from London.

The Government Office North West (GONW) said that, between April, 2004, and April, 2009, there were 1,667 civil servant jobs moved to the Liverpool region from the South.

However, during that period, 100 job losses have been announced at the Land Registry in Birkenhead, and 350 jobs have been lost from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

And, according to the Public and Commercial Services Union, HM Revenue and Customs will see the loss of 600 jobs by 2011 across Merseyside.

Mrs Hughes wrote to the Daily Post in response to our revelations that GONW is set to slash its presence in Liverpool by moving more than 40 key jobs to Manchester.

In her letter, she said: Its not true to say that the Government is reducing its presence in Liverpool as your lead story (Mon, May 18) asserts.

By contrast, Liverpool has been more successful than any other city in the country in attracting civil service posts out of London and the South East.

More than 1,650 posts have already come to Liverpool from the South and more will arrive over the next few months.

The MP for Stretford and Urmston, in Greater Manchester, went on to write of her excitement at the prospect of creating a so-called Whitehall of the North in Manchester, where thousands of civil servants would be based.