Labour MPs' election prospects threatened by unemployment rise

As Britain prepares to enter a recession, it remains "two nations", with jobless blackspots concentrated heavily in the North and the West Midlands.

The banking crisis has fuelled reports that the downturn will be a "white-collar recession" with London and the south hit much harder than the North. But an "unemployment map" produced by the House of Commons Library, and obtained by The Independent, suggests the South has a long way to fall to reach anywhere near the levels of the North.

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The 25 parliamentary constituencies with the highest percentage of unemployed people include seats in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Hull, Belfast and Glasgow, as well as three of the poorest areas in London: Bethnal Green and Bow; Poplar and Canning Town; and Hackney South. All of the constituencies are represented by Labour or independent MPs.

The three worst jobless blackspots are all in Birmingham, where, in Ladywood, 19.3 per cent of inhabitants are unemployed – the figure rises to 24.6 per cent of the area's men. Next worst is the second city's Sparkbrook and Small Heath, which has an unemployment rate of 14.7 per cent, and Hodge Hill, where it is 12 per cent.

In contrast, 21 of the 25 constituencies with the lowest jobless rates are in the south of England, many of them in the Home Counties.

Britain's "north-south" divide extends to party politics: none of the 25 seats with the highest unemployment is represented by a Conservative or Liberal Democrat MP. Twenty of the 25 with the lowest are held by the Tories, while the other five have Liberal Democrat MPs. The 25 areas with least unemployment include among their MPs nine members of the Shadow Cabinet, led by David Cameron, whose Witney constituency has a jobless rate of just 0.9 per cent, the sixth-lowest in the UK. The others are Dominic Grieve, the MP for Beaconsfield and shadow Home Secretary; Oliver Letwin, West Dorset; Michael Gove, Surrey Heath; Cheryl Gillan, Chesham and Amersham; Peter Ainsworth, East Surrey; Jeremy Hunt, South West Surrey; Philip Hammond, Runnymede and Weybridge; and Liam Fox, Woodspring.

The three seats with the lowest unemployment are all held by the Liberal Democrats: Westmorland and Lonsdale, Gordon and West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, which has a jobless rate of just 0.6 per cent. Labour MPs in the party's strongholds have urged ministers not to tailor the Government's measures to ease the pain of the downturn towards the prosperous south. Some MPs have received complaints that the taxpayer-funded £500bn bank rescue is an example of Government bias towards London.

Ministers believe the impact of the downturn will be more evenly spread than previous recessions, and that white-collar workers will be more affected this time. But they admit that it would be wrong to focus all the Government's attention on London and the south. "Any area or region which starts off in a relatively weak position is going to be vulnerable," one minister said.

Another study, by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, forecast that 120,000 workers in London will lose their jobs during the next 18 months as the capital suffers a longer and deeper recession than the rest of the country. It said many would be in high-paid industries such as banking, advertising, the law and accountancy

The number of unemployed is rising at the fastest rate for 17 years and increased to 1.79m by the end of August.