LABOUR ministers are deaf to the countryside and pleas for help during the economic downturn will be ignored, the Tories claim today.

New shadow environment secretary Nick Herbert warns of a quiet anger bubbling up in villages across the country which could help decide the result of the next election.

Writing in today's Western Morning News, he highlights a damning list of failures during Labour's decade in power.

He points to a lack of affordable housing, soaring fuel prices, the demise of post offices and village pubs and under-investment in education and health.

And he claims that too often campaigns to raise the profile of challenges faced by rural areas have been overlooked by an "arrogant" Government.

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"Anyone expecting that ministers will mind about what's happening to rural communities shouldn't hold their breath," he writes of the deepening recession.

The article marks a major shift in the Conservative's drive to be seen as the voice of the countryside.

Tory leader David Cameron moved Mr Herbert to the environment, food and rural affairs brief last week, sacking Peter Ainsworth who was considered a poor media performer.

One Conservative source said: "We're supposed to be the party of the countryside, and David had done so much on the environment and yet Peter was almost invisible."

Mr Herbert, by contrast, is seen as one of the most promising figures on the party's frontbench. He also has strong countryside credentials. His constituency, Arundel and South Downs, is one of the most rural in the country and he worked for the British Field Sports Society, helping to set up the Countryside Alliance.

Today's article signals an attempt to accuse Labour of deliberately ignoring rural areas in the run-up to the next general election.

"The story of the last decade has been one of arrogant disdain by central government for the views of local people," Mr Herbert writes.

"Turnout in rural Britain at the last general election was significantly higher than in urban areas. Rural communities are crying out to be heard. They should no longer be ignored."

The message is likely to resonate in large parts of the Westcountry – though a strong sentiment remains in some areas that the region was overlooked when the Conservatives were in power pre-1997.

"We desperately need a new Government which understands rural Britain and cares about it," Mr Herbert said.

The Government has recently vowed to step up efforts to ensure its policies will help rural areas.

The cross-departmental "rural-proofing" scheme is to be relaunched, including ordering ministers, civil servants and local councils to take into account the needs of more remote communities.

However, the WMN revealed last week figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government which showed it had spent almost £1 billion "reviving" coal-mining in Labour-supporting areas compared to just £142 million for rural areas.

Critics claimed ministers were "putting party before country".