Speaking at the first gathering of the newly formed North East Party (NEP) in Durham the Party Chairman Hilton Dawson drew upon research from the House of Commons to demonstrate the widening funding gap between devolved Wales and a non-devolved North East.
Hilton said: “Wales is very similar to the North East with a similar size population, large rural areas mixed with major cities, an economy recovering from the demise of coal mining and a rich cultural identity. In 1979 the people of Wales emphatically rejected devolution in similar terms to the North East but 18 years later thanks to the political pressure exerted by a campaigning National Party a further referendum produced a narrow victory for self determination. A recent UK Government sponsored Inquiry concluded that devolution has been a considerable success and that this should now be developed further by increasing the powers of the Wales Government.
Underpinning all of this is the public funding provided by the UK Government. NEP has obtained figures which show that every woman,man and child in Wales has £350  per head more spent on them  per annum than every person in the North East. Multiplied by the 2.5 million population of the North East this shows that we are worse off by £875 million per annum. Over the ten years since our failed referendum we have had £8.75 billion less than Wales.
This is a colossal amount of money which should have been spent to improve accountable public services in the North East. Expenditure on this scale, if wisely used by an elected regional government could have transformed the services and the lives of North East people.
Those who campaigned for a ‘No’ vote back in 2004 have a great deal to answer for. The North East is a wonderful region with some of the best communities and finest people in the world however we have been let down by London.
Our high levels of unemployment and poverty, our increasing status as the poor relations to the rest of England and the underfunding of our public  services are all the evidence we could possibly need that those who urged us to vote ‘No’ may have won one referendum but over the last decade they have lost the argument.
The North East Party (NEP) says ‘Yes’ to North East England, ‘Yes’ to dealing effectively with the real issues of people’s lives and ‘Yes’ to devolution – taking the big decisions ourselves.
NEP is standing up for North East England and with the unveiling of our first two Parliamentary candidates, with progress on policy and development of strategy our first Gathering will take the North East’s newest political party, only one month old, a great step forward.’