MORE than 60 Liverpool jobs will be lost after the government announced it will close its offices in the city.

The decision to scrap Government Office North West offices in both Liverpool and Manchester means up to 200 staff will be lost.

The news has provoked outrage from council and union leaders, who said the move made a mockery of the Big Society pledge, launched in Liverpool on Monday.

Prime Minister David Cameron said there would be “government officials ready and waiting to pull down any bureaucratic obstacles” that stand in the way of communities.

But yesterday, communities secretary Eric Pickles said he believed the time had come to shut down the Government’s offices.

Staff at the offices in the Cunard Building represent the city to their Whitehall counterparts and play a significant role in bringing in funding to the city.

Mr Pickles said: “I do not believe the arbitrary government regions to be a tier of administration that is efficient, effective or popular. Citizens across England identify with their county, their city, their town, their borough and their neighbourhood.

“Unelected regional government equally lacks democratic legitimacy and its continuing existence has created a democratic deficit.”