AN offer by two Bolton Labour MPs to be mediators in the jobs loss crisis at the town's Littlewoods mail order centres has been slammed as "a cheap public relations gimmick" by the Tories.

The BEN reported last night that David Crausby and Ruth Kelly had said they would step in and help in any way they could. But today Bolton North East Conservatives' deputy political chairman, Paul Brierley, said they had warned 12 months ago that Labour's economic policies would inevitably lead to job losses.

"For the workers of Bolton this has unfortunately proved to be the case," he said. And he warned that other local companies would "find themselves in the same predicament".

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