TOP Tories will today paint Manchester as a tale of two cities - a booming centre surrounded by areas riddled with debt, disease and drugs.

Conservative leader David Cameron (pictured) and former leader Iain Duncan Smith will begin a regional tour in the city calling on THE town hall and Whitehall to join forces to tackle the 'social breakdown' in the city.

Meeting at the Barnabus project, which helps the homeless, drug addicts and prostitutes, they were expected to point out that fewer than one in three Manchester teenagers get five or more good GCSE passes.

Mr Duncan Smith, author of the 'Breakthrough Manchester' report, disagrees with plans to force teenagers to stay in school or training until 18.

He said: "People tell me it is difficult to persuade many children to stay in school beyond 12. They often play truant and go to homes where there is no culture of education.

"We shouldn't look down our noses at vocational training at school - so that youngsters can leave school with a trade such as bricklaying or plumbing."

He said he did not favour building a super casino to regenerate east Manchester, one of the top five most deprived areas in Britain. "This is a tale of two cities. After the IRA bomb the city has witnessed a real turnaround. It's a great story worth celebrating.

"But with one of the two cities forging ahead, creating jobs and wealth and another mired in a deepening spiral of social breakdown, bad schooling and crime, drug and alcohol abuse.

"We are forming policies to reverse the tide of social breakdown and ensure that everyone in Manchester and the rest of the UK will have a chance to play a full part in the life of the nation."

Mr Duncan Smith is recommending new 'pioneer' schools run by parents and voluntary groups, along with tax breaks for marriage and benefit reform.

Before David Cameron's arrival in the city Mr Duncan Smith rejected claims that this was a political stunt.

Labour

He said: "I'm happy to meet Labour councillors at any time.

"The message to Manchester is that this is part of a regional tour. We are trying to be upbeat - this is not Conservatives coming to Manchester to whack the council."

His report says that while the city centre is one of the most visited areas in England, beneath the glossy exterior lies a much bleaker day-to-day reality for thousands of residents.

"Deprivation, family breakdown and educational failure are contributing to the creation of a generation of youths lost to gangs, guns, crime and worklessness," says the report.

The key findings include: Manchester is at the bottom of the league table for truancy, only one school leaver in the city goes to university, two in five families with children are headed by a lone parent, compared with one in five average, Greater Manchester has the highest number of antisocial behaviour orders in the UK and there are seven gun-related incidents every day.

The bleak picture continues: Manchester's teenage pregnancy rate is nearly double the average, Greater Manchester has the highest number of children under 15 admitted to hospital for alcohol-related problems, and 22 per cent of Manchester's working age population are unemployed and on benefits.

Mr Duncan Smith concludes: "Manchester is one of the greatest cities in the UK and its economic rebirth over the last 15 years in enriching the lives of many of its two million citizens.

"But many others are being left behind. On just about every measure of social breakdown Manchester scores far worse than the national average and other big cities," added Mr Duncan Smith.

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