Public 'don't trust postal votes' for regional referenda

John Prescott's department has conceded there is little public confidence in the use of all postal ballots in the N orth West and Yorkshire and the Humber.

However, the deputy prime minister is pushing ahead with a ballot on a regional assembly for the north east on November 4.

A spokesman for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister told ePolitix.com: "Public confidence is paramount and it became evident in the debates following the pilots during the June elections that there wasn’t that confidence in those two regions.

"There is now a job to be done to persuade the public that there are no significant problems with the system."

The spokesman denied that the referenda in the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber would be abandoned if the people of the North East roundly rejected the proposal for a London-style assembly.

"The North East is a stand alone project that we are entirely focused on," he said

Earlier reports suggested that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are ready to support the regional assembly campaign now acceptance of the mini-parliaments is linked to local government reform.

On Wednesday Prescott launched a leaflet campaign in the North East aimed at informing the electorate of the issues.