A BODY blow was delivered to East Lancashire this week as large parts of it were kicked off the new Assisted Area Status map that is the key to £3billion of EU job-creation aid.

But now heading our way is Dick Caborn, the trade minister responsible for the regions, to discuss whether there is anything to be done to persuade the European Commission to change its mind.

Let him get this straight right now: We do not want any helpless hand-wringing from him or fellow ministers, nor any smokescreen that Brussels is to blame. This is our government's fault.

For the fact is that these areas of East Lancashire that are losing out on these vital grants -- amazingly, some are among its most deprived wards while, ludicrously, a better-off one in Blackburn qualifies for them -- have been excluded from the aid map by our ministers, not by the EU.

Yes, Brussels determines the amount of aid, but it is our own government which decides which areas get the opportunity of it.

So let us have no pretence about this from either Mr Caborn or our upset Labour MPs. Let Mr Caborn get this straight too: East Lancashire has been delivered this kick in the teeth when hundreds of jobs have been lost in the towns where hard-up wards are being denied EU assistance. Our region's manufacturing sector is struggling and only recently more than 600 jobs have been axed in Burnley and Hyndburn through the shake-out in the motor industry and the Rover crisis threatens many more.

And let's not have any attempts to play down the North-South divide and the difficulties of the regions. Twice this week, different economic analysts have shown how the gap is widening, with the North West's economy forecast to be the second most slow-growing.

Is it any wonder that the government's attempts to pretend the divide does not exist -- and even sanctioning of the removal of a major science project from the North West to the South -- has triggered a backlash in Labour's traditional heartlands?

When Mr Caborn comes on his mission to this troubled heartland, he should be told that if Labour wants its votes, the struggling and deprived areas of East Lancashire must be restored at once to the Assisted Area Status map. That is all there is to discuss.