Prime Minister Tony Blair has backed a campaign launched by the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette to create new jobs in the Tees Valley.

The paper wants to help create a business a day in the area – a total of 365 new enterprises over the next year.

Mr Blair said: “I am delighted to give my support to the Evening Gazette’s Business A Day campaign which shows this paper is right at the heart of its community.”

He added: “There are many Tees Valley firms which started from a single person’s vision.

“And there are scores of examples, too, where someone’s interests have been turned into a successful small business. We need more to follow their lead. Small businesses – the motor of economic growth – are vital to the future of the Tees Valley and this country.”

Gazette editor Paul Robertson said: “We have already had backing from key players within both the business community and at local level.

“Teeside has one of the worst unemployment levels in the country and we want to do something which will capture the public imagination and encourage people who may not have considered starting up their own business as an option to think again.”

The newspaper will be working in partnership with the public and private sector to give unemployed people the confidence to start their own businesses.

There will be support and advice for would-be entrepreneurs and a hotline for them to ring.

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