MPs from across the North were being urged this evening to rally behind the battle to save York's army headquarters.

As union leaders addressed a vital meeting of Labour MPs in Westminster, fresh arguments emerged in the Evening Press backed campaign to keep a divisional HQ at Imphal Barracks and save more than 200 jobs.

Imphal civil service union leader Ian MacLaren claimed the taxpayer would be saved £15 million over a ten- year period if the HQ remained in York rather than moving to Edinburgh as planned.

York University economist Dr Bernard Stafford said the York economy would lose a total of £6.75 million a year if the HQ closed with an additional 20 jobs on top of the initial 200 being shed through the knock-on impact on local businesses.

The army is considering merging the Imphal-based 2nd Division with the Edinburgh-based Scottish Division, and siting the merged HQ in the Scottish capital.

Tonight's unprecedented joint meeting of the Yorkshire and Northern groups of Labour MPs has been called at the request of York MP Hugh Bayley in a bid to persuade the Ministry of Defence to site the HQ in York instead.

He wants to turn a local campaign into a regional one capable of exerting real pressure on ministers.

Ian MacLaren and fellow union leader Ian Craven will tell the MPs that closure of York's HQ makes no sense from either a military or financial perspective.

Mr MacLaren claimed research had shown that it would be £15 million cheaper over ten years to site the HQ at York, mainly because it would mean substantially fewer redundancies than the alternative.

"It's also our belief we have established that militarily, the best place is York," he said.

Dr Stafford said he had conducted a study for City of York Council of the impact of closure on the York economy, and concluded that it would cost a total of £6.75 million per annum, primarily through the loss of salaries to staff.

As well as the loss of 235 full-time equivalent staff, he had calculated that an additional 21 jobs would be lost elsewhere in York through reduced spending on services and goods.

Mr Bayley will tell the MPs that three times as many army recruits come from the North of England as Scotland, and four times as many soldiers are based south of the border as north.

He said: "The military tradition in the north of England is just as strong as it is in Scotland."

Professor Keith Hartley, of the university's Centre for Defence Economics, said he could not see either military or economic logic in favour of locating the HQ in Edinburgh.

But he could see a political logic, in that the first Minister of Scotland might want troops based in Edinburgh.

Scores of readers have continued to send in coupons printed in the Evening Press opposing the closure of the HQ, bringing the total to date to more than 600.

See COMMENT Army HQ is vital to York

For more information on our Save our Army Headquarters campaign.

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