A Plaid Cymru MP has called on the government to make Liverpool the capital of the UK in an effort to end the north-south 'divide'.

Adam Price, MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, told a Parliamentary debate on regional economic policy that the move would help regenerate many of the poorest areas of the UK.

Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price

Mr Price claimed in his speech that regional inequalities in the UK were getting worse.

He said: "Up to the mid 1970s regional inequality was actually diminishing.

"Over the last 25 years that gap has grown again into a gulf.

"In the mid 1970s no British region had GDP levels lower than four fifths of the south east.

"By 1999 no British region outside the prosperous inner core had value-added levels as high as four fifths of the south east.

"In Wales, GDP per head fell from 81% of the South East level to only 66% in 1998/99."

The idea to move the UK capital to Liverpool is not official Plaid Cymru policy, but the party says it is committed to decentralisation.

In his speech, Mr Price said he wanted to move administrative jobs to areas outside London, as occurred with the DVLA's move to Swansea.

'Centralised'

He added: "No other European state is as centralised as this one.

"London is the administrative capital, the financial capital, the media capital and the corporate capital.

"London is quite simply draining the brains out of the rest of Britain."

Mr Price added that many other countries had their capitals outside their largest cities and said that removing capital city status would benefit London.

Moving the capital would signal unequivocally that government takes the North-South Divide seriously Adam Price

"All other major English-speaking states have their political capitals away from their biggest cities," he said.

"Property prices in London would become more realistic; the roads and railways a little less clogged.

"London would still be a great global city - indeed it would arguably become an even greater one, because it would work better."

And Mr Price suggested that Liverpool, which along with Cardiff is currently on the shortlist for European Capital of Culture 2008, was ideally placed to be the UK capital.

'Diverse'

He said: "Liverpool has nine of the 20 poorest postcodes in the UK, so let's reverse life's lottery of location and put the UK Parliament there, an Anglo-Celtic city that's ethnically diverse and infectiously inclusive.

"The Treasury could do its bit and relocate itself in Bootle.

"Jobs would spread as they have done in the south, from the north west into other regions, including Wales and the Midlands.

"And why stop there, what better way to enshrine the independence of the Bank of England than sending it to Newcastle.

"Moving the capital would signal unequivocally that government takes the north-south divide seriously.

"It would regenerate the north, take pressure off the south, and symbolize a reformed and genuinely decentralised Britain."

Plaid Cymru has not called for the capital's move from London to Liverpool, but a party spokeswoman said decentralisation was central to its plans.

She added: "If a Plaid Cymru government was formed in the National Assembly, it would move government bodies out of Cardiff across Wales to spread prosperity."