NORTHERNERS could be granted 'equal rights' to southerners under extraordinary government plans to stamp out discrimination.

Harriet Harman, the government's equality tsar is said to want to introduce rules that will halt inequality against people 'up North'.

She has reportedly instructed her Equalities Office to look at 'diversity proposals' to stop Londoners and others in the south from dominating national public bodies, or quangos.

Conservatives have rejected the proposals as 'patronising' and as an 'unhealthy obsession' with 'tick-box culture' at the expense of efficiency.

But Blackley MP Graham Stringer said there should be more equal membership of national bodies. He said: "A lot of national quangos are full of professional London quangocrats.

Dominating

"It would be good if there was a fairer distribution. More important than that, it would be good to make sure that quangos spent their money in the north as much as in the south."

News of the proposals emerged after Equalities Minister Michael Foster was challenged by Yorkshire MP Meg Munn to stop people from the south east from dominating national bodies based in London.

The former Minister for Women and Equality, from Sheffield, demanded to know how 'more people from a wider area' could be called upon to serve on the boards.

Mr Foster said in a parliamentary debate that the government was looking into the issue. He said the idea was to prevent membership from becoming too 'London centric'.

He said: "National boards still seem to have that problem, so an important part of our diversity proposals is that regional targeting will be part of our future planning."

He promised more research to work out the make-up of key national bodies.

Patronising

But northern Tory politician Philip Davies, MP for Shipley in West Yorkshire, condemned the plans as 'equal opportunities gone berserk' and 'patronising to Northerners'.

Theresa May, the Shadow Minister for Women, said: "Labour's unhealthy obsession with a tick-box culture has often been at the expense of competence and efficiency. It is important that all public bodies represent a cross-section of views but it is vital that appointments are made on merit."

The Equalities Office said: "We want to see more diversity in public appointments.

 "We have just launched an action plan to get more under-represented groups such as women, ethnic minorities and disabled people on to the local boards of public bodies.

"The plan includes a campaign to encourage people from such groups to apply for public appointments."