DEFENCE Secretary Sir Michael Fallon returned to his old stomping ground on Wednesday in the hope that there will be a once in a generation switch on June 8.

“I remember you when your hair was black and you had that debate with Tony Blair,” said one lady who stopped the silver-haired former Conservative MP for Darlington on High Row.

Burly security men in black suits fanned out around Joseph Pease’s statue as she spoke to Mr Fallon, and an eager traffic warden tried to move on his two unmarked ministerial vehicles which were stopped on double yellow lines outside Burger King.

Mr Fallon was first elected in 1983 – when Mr Blair made his bow in neighbouring Sedgefield – but lost to Alan Milburn in 1992.

“We won it previously ’51 and ’83 so about every 30 years it’s time for a change, and I think that is in the air now,” he said.

Flanked by the Conservative candidate in the town, Peter Cuthbertson, Mr Fallon said: “Labour is a risk – you risk a weaker economy, you risk weaker defence, and you risk a successful Brexit. I think there’s a recognition that at a defining moment for our country, you need strong, proven leadership and that’s Theresa May.

“And this was part of our argument in ’83, that we are now going to get a Conservative government so places like Darlington, Sedgefield and Bishop Auckland need local champions who are part of the Conservative mainstream.”

The Labour candidate, Jenny Chapman, who is the sitting MP, has had Mr Milburn supporting her on the doorstep during the campaign, but yesterday the Defence Secretary, who is surrounded by one of the tightest levels of security in government, visited from his safe seat in Sevenoaks, Kent, which he has represented since 1997.

During the campaign, Mr Fallon has been attacking Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s claim, which appears to have been supported in the past by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, that British foreign policy has played a role in creating the terrorist threat.

“Whatever drives Islamist fundamentalism cannot excuse the murder of innocent civilians and that is where Jeremy Corbyn has gone wrong,” said Mr Fallon, on a whistlestop visit to The Northern Echo’s office in Priestgate, Darlington. “The blame in Manchester has to be taken by the terrorist himself. The answer is to deradicalise at home and to be tough abroad, and at the very time Corbyn was saying he wouldn’t necessarily support RAF strikes against terrorists planning outrages in Britain, I was authorising them.”

Having lost a by-election in Darlington in 1983, Mr Fallon won the town at a general election 11 weeks later, and he held on until 1992 when he lost by 2,798 votes.

“That was a wrench,” he said. “I spent ten years of my life here. I married here, my two boys were born here, one in Greenbank and one in the Memorial.

“It was sad to lose but it was heartening on High Row to hear how many people remember how I helped – usually their mums and dads because it was 25 years ago, but I sense Darlington is ready for change now.”