The Tories are injecting hundreds of thousands of pounds into campaigning for the May elections in the North after building up a multimillion-pound war chest to fight Labour in its heartland.

William Hague, the key fundraiser, has more than doubled the party’s funding in the North over the past 12 months in an attempt to reverse the Tories’ fortunes there, The Times has learnt.

Gordon Brown launches his local election campaign today, and Labour will focus much of its energy on the South of England, where it will defend many of the most marginal seats in the general election.

Mr Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, has held all his fundraising dinners in the North and ensured that senior members of the Shadow Cabinet have made frequent visits to attract donors. The Tories’ Northern Board, which Mr Hague chairs, has also been given special treatment as every penny raised in the area is deployed locally rather than sent to party headquarters in London.

Despite big gains in the South last year, the Tories still have no councillors in Liverpool and Newcastle, only one in Sheffield and one in Manchester, who defected from the Liberal Democrats last year.

David Cameron is desperate to build on last year’s gains in the outer metropolitan boroughs when 4,500 seats in England and Wales are contested on May 1. The Tories have 1,504 council seats in the North but hold only 19 councils.

The media focus will be on the close contest between Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson over the mayoral crown in London. Twenty-five Greater London Assembly seats will also be contested on May 1 but the Tory leader and Shadow Cabinet will spend much of the next six weeks in the northern metropolitan cities.

Few town halls are expected to change hands but there could be upsets in two northern cities. In Liverpool, Labour could gain control from the Liberal Democrats, who have held the seat for the past ten years.

The Liberal Democrats may seize Sheffield, which contains the constituency of Nick Clegg, the party leader, but they would have to win the Tory seat there to do so. The Tories hope to gain the three seats that they need to win control of North Tyneside.

Mr Hague, the MP for Richmond, North Yorkshire, has also spent the past year galvanising volunteers to fight seats in the North, where the party has only 19 MPs.

Michael Bates, the deputy Tory party chairman, said that the war chest for the North had more than doubled in the past year, largely because of Mr Hague’s fundraising skills. He refused to reveal the exact sum raised but admitted it was “in millions”, though lower than ten.

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