Across the region, people cast their votes yesterday in what will be the final election for Labour under Tony Blair. The Northern Echo reports from the counts.

IT was the people of Sedgefield, on June 9, 1983, who first gave Tony Blair power. Nearly 25 years on, their MP is one of the world's most powerful men.

Nationally, Mr Blair has been battered. Locally, most voters remain proud to have the PM on their patch.

He has been in power for ten years, but without Sedgefield's mandate, it could never have happened.

In the spring sunshine yesterday, the support continued to bloom.

"I think he has made massive strides in the country," said Maxine Robinson, 47, outside the polling station.

"He has brought Socialism to the front, and he has enhanced the North-East tremendously.

"He has improved health, education, and he has given people jobs. I think the ten years he has been in power are a massive achievement."

When Mr Blair brought Jacques Chirac and George Bush to the North-East, the international media followed. Sedgefield became world famous.

"He has put us on the map," said Brian Crossan, 47, from Sedgefield.

"It was a little, no-account town before he came. It's great he can bring Chirac and Bush, and be comfortable doing it."

James Cain, 73, from Sedgefield, said: "I used to speak to him when I flew back from London on work. When George Bush came, Mr Blair saw me on The Green, remembered me, then came across and shook my hand.

"We have had a Labour Prime Minister from our area and we should be proud."

Mr Cain's wife, Edna, also 73, worked in the health service for 40 years. She said: "As far as the health service is concerned, I cannot praise it enough.

"When the Tories were in, honestly, I was shocked at the way it was treated."

Along Sedgefield's main street in the bookmaker's, the praise is more guarded.

"Blair's alright," said Basil Rutter, 70, from Fishburn. "It's the other ones in the party that are no good.

"But it's the Iraq war that did him no good at all. That's the big thing."

It is impossible to discuss Mr Blair's legacy without mentioning Iraq.

Outside the polling station, Kris Wharton, 25, from Sedgefield, said that the war will forever loom large.

"Coming from a Forces family, the whole opinion in the family is that it shouldn't be happening," he said.

"That's why I'm here voting against him. Iraq is what he is going to be most remembered for."

Sharon Brown, a farmer from Sedgefield, said that Mr Blair's Government had not supported her industry.

"I always expected he would not support the countryside, and he has lived up to those expectations," she said.

Mrs Brown's husband, Stephen, said: "He is not going out with a bang - he is limping out with a whimper.

"He has put Sedgefield on the map, but once he's gone, I don't think he'll hang round his house in Trimdon very long."

Opposite St Edmund's Church, on the village green, the town's noticeboard has a raft of posters. One begins: "How politics affects your local area."

In Tony Blair's ten years, it has affected Sedgefield more than most.