THE shadow education secretary joined North-East Labour candidates on the campaign trail today (Sunday, May 28).

Angela Rayner, a member of the shadow cabinet and Labour candidate for Ashton-Under-Lyne, hit the streets of Darlington and Shildon in County Durham to help spread key messages.

In Darlington, she was joined by Labour’s candidate Jenny Chapman, while Helen Goodman, the party’s candidate for Bishop Auckland, showed her around Shildon.

Mrs Rayner, a mother-of-three, said: “The Labour party has a clear vision for this country and that is to ensure every child and adult receives a free education.

“We believe cutting funding to schools and scrapping free school meals in infant schools is wrong.

“Labour believes in a free education and we will pay for it by increasing the amount of corporations tax big companies pay.

“When Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, at its lowest, corporation tax was 33 per cent. This Government wants to reduce it to 17 per cent.

“That is unacceptable when children are going hungry and headteachers are sending out begging letters.”

Ahead of a walkabout with Mrs Rayner and her supporters in Shildon, Mrs Goodman said: “It’s great to have Angela here today. It’s been a very positive campaign so far.

“We have got more volunteers and we are talking to more people and we are getting a better response.”

Mrs Goodman described education as a key issue in the Bishop Auckland consistency, and said local schools would lose hundreds of pounds per pupil if the Conservatives were elected.

“I have been talking to young parents in their twenties and thirties and they are very concerned about proposed cuts to school budgets,” she said.

“I think that is making a lot of people turn to Labour.”