Prime Minister Tony Blair has hit back at critics, led by former minister Peter Kilfoyle, who say he has abandoned Labour's traditional "heartlands" in order to appeal to southern voters.

In a speech at Labour's local government conference in Blackpool on Sunday, Mr Blair said: "The whole country is our core constituency".

Mr Kilfoyle, supported by other MPs on the left of the party, had said there is an ideological "vacuum" at the heart of the Blair administration.

He has also accused some in the party hierarchy of forgetting its roots in the Labour "heartlands".

The BBC's political correspondent Nick Jones says many Labour councillors and party workers agree with Mr Kilfoyle's comments and want the government to show more commitment to the elderly, the homeless and those on low incomes.

But Mr Blair, fresh from another "fire-fighting" mission in the West Country where he was seeking to damp down resentment among farmers, was in a belligerent mood in Blackpool.

'Entitled to speak your mind'

He reiterated his call for an end to the "politics of division" - north against south, town against country, England against Scotland/Wales - and called for unity.

While not mentioning Mr Kilfoyle by name, he criticised those who sought to create divisions between north and south.

He said he had spent 14 years in opposition as MP for Sedgefield in County Durham and had been powerless to effect change because Labour's weakness in the south had meant it was unable to win elections.

He said: "We have to win in the south as well as the north, the east as well as the west.

"Do not let us think that there are parts of the country we represent and some parts we don't. We represent all of Britain and are proud of doing so."

Mr Blair said he was proud, not ashamed, of being pro-business and said: "We want to see wealth creation take place in this country...

"But when people tell that because we are reaching out to business we have somehow forgotten those people who are poorest in society I say 'How wrong can you be'."

He pointed out his government had introduced the largest ever rise in child benefits, further benefits for pensioners, minimum income guarantee, free eye tests for pensioners, reduced VAT on fuel.

Mr Kilfoyle resigned on Monday in protest at the government's treatment of the "heartlands of Labour".

He told Saturday's Daily Telegraph: "I don't know what New Labour is. I believe we need some kind of ideological glue to hold things together."

On Saturday Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said the government's record gave the lie to Mr Kilfoyle's criticisms.

He said: "We have now put £5bn into housing and that is what the party wanted us to do, we now talk of full employment, not mass unemployment, we are reducing the waiting lists.

"We are doing everything we promised, something like 80% plus of our manifesto has already been implemented."

Government minister Ian McCartney also defended the government's record, citing the introduction of the Working Families Tax Credit, the New Deal, the commitment to tackling child poverty and the regeneration of the health and education services.

The Telegraph interview is the first sign of what Mr Blair can expect from Mr Kilfoyle. The MP for Liverpool West also said Prime Minister Tony Blair's "Third Way" did not mean anything.

But although he maintains he is still loyal to Mr Blair, he said there was too much concentration on the "middle ground" of politics.

It is too early to say whether it will damage his chances of becoming Mayor of Liverpool, should the government decide to extend the London example to provincial cities.