Dave's Friends in the North

Can the Conservatives stage a comeback in Northern England

Until 1997 the Conservative Party was a truly national party. Then came the great wipe out in Scotland, Wales and urban England. By then the Conservatives already fallen into third place in many towns and cities in the North of England.

To win the next election David Cameron must re-establish a strong Tory presence in the North. The political columnist of the London Evening Standard, Anne McElvoy, has headed back to the land of her childhood to investigate.

In part two, Anne tells us about the battle in Northern marginals - and there's a warning to Labour from the former Cabinet minister Hazel Blears that her party can no longer take the North of England for granted.