Conservatives announce 'regional' ministers

The Conservatives have also just annouced their own version of 'regional' ministers for England, although they do not exactly mirror those which were recently annouced by government. They are:

• Alan Duncan for Tyneside
• George Osborne for Manchester
• William Hague represents the Leeds/Bradford area and will have and overall responsibility for the North
• Caroline Spelman for Coventry
• Andrew Mitchell for Birmingham
• Francis Maude for the Black Country
• Andrew Lansley for Nottingham
• Dominic Grieve for Leicester
• Cheryl Gillan for Cardiff
• David Mundell for Glasgow
• Chris Grayling for Liverpool
• Stephen O'Brien for Stoke
• And Jacqui Lait for London
  

Further announcements regarding the north-east and south-west will apparently be made over the summer. As yet no one has been appointed for any area in the south east.

It in interesting that the Tories have gone much more for a city-based focus, and many unsurprisingly in the north, whereas the government ministers are most certainly based on the nine regions.