THE controversial decision to axe 100 jobs from the Office for National Statistics in Titchfield is part of a broader government attack on Hampshire, an MP said today.

Mark Hoban said the jobs blow followed the scrapping of the multi-million-pound south Hampshire "supertram", the failure to upgrade the county's road network and cutbacks at Royal Navy bases on the south coast.

He said: "This decision is not about improving operations at the ONS - it is part of a broader attack on Hampshire.

"People in south Hampshire will be feeling beleaguered and sensing they have got a raw deal from the government."

The Fareham MP spoke out after the ONS revealed it was axing 100 jobs at its 1,100-employee centre in Titchfield.

Bosses said 200 posts would move to Newport by 2008 but another 100 jobs will transfer to Hampshire from London.

"Several hundred" new posts will be created in the run-up to Census 2011, the once-a-decade survey which looks at the lives of every man, woman and child in the UK, said an ONS spokesman.

National statistician Len Cook said the move was part of a plan to transform the ONS Titchfield centre into a European leader for population statistics.

As part of the shake-up, it will also focus on:

managing neighbourhood statistics

overseeing the growing number of sources used for statistics

looking after the team of people carrying out surveys across the UK.

The ONS carried out the shake-up after Chancellor Gordon Brown revealed 20,030 civil service jobs would be shifted from London and the south-east to the regions as part of a £2.3 billion cost-cutting drive.

Mr Hoban, a Tory front-bencher, said staff at the ONS had been "betrayed" by the government.

He said: "This has been a roller-coaster ride for Titchfield employees. At the time of the Budget, they were told that all jobs at ONS would go.

"In April, they were given assurances that the jobs were safe. Then, in July, Gordon Brown threw those assurances out of the window."