PROTESTORS have voiced their anger over Tory policies as Boris Johnson declared the North-East has a "fantastic future" if the Conservatives are voted back into power.

Speaking in Shildon, near Bishop Auckland, this morning the Foreign Secretary promised investment in the region's schools and the NHS.

Campaigners, which included numerous supporters of Labour candidate for Bishop Auckland Helen Goodman, gathered as he said the Tories were fighting for every vote in the region.

"It is about jobs, growth and understanding," he said. "There is not a magic money tree.

"The North-East has a fantastic future. There are some great companies and investment happening here."

After the speech, Mr Johnson was challenged by reporters are being caught out on air hours earlier when he criticised Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for opposing anti-terror laws that he also voted against.

Mr Johnson had been countering criticism from Labour over security failings, saying it was "weird" for Mr Corbyn to intervene as he had consistently opposed anti-terror laws.

It had been pointed out that Mr Johnson and Theresa May had opposed key terror laws, and Mr Johnson voted against controversial measures to detain terror suspects for up to 90 days in 2005.

It came after Mr Johnson ramped up pressure on the security services by saying the public were right to ask how one of the London Bridge attackers "slipped through our net", after it was revealed that Khuram Butt, 27, was reported to authorities in 2015.

Challenged over cuts in police numbers following his speech in Shildon, Mr Johnson said: "Every year I was mayor in London we were able to keep police numbers at or around 32,000 and I think they've been higher in our period in office than virtually every year Labour was in office in the 13 years before then.

"We are investing in counter-terrorism, we are putting 1,900 more into our counter-terrorist operations as well as putting more armed police officers out on the street."

He added: "It really concerns me that Jeremy Corbyn - the only guy who could be prime minister apart from Theresa May on Friday - until very recently was saying that he did not support shoot-to-kill, which was absolutely indispensable in protecting innocent life on Saturday.

"This is a guy who voted against the formal establishment of MI5 in 1989, who boasts that he has voted against every piece of counter-terrorist legislation which has been brought before Parliament.

"You have a putative home secretary in Diane Abbott, who does not think that al Qaida should be a proscribed organisation, and voted against that. It beggars belief that these people should be running our country from Friday."

London mayor Sadiq Khan said "legitimate questions" were being asked after Saturday night's attack.

He said: "The priority of the police and the security services is to investigate what happened on Saturday night, but I have no doubt they'll be looking into if there are lessons to be learnt... did they know about this man, did they act rightly? And I'm sure in due course they'll be letting us know what went on.

"What I think it's improper for me to do is, without seeing all the facts, to comment about that, but clearly there are legitimate questions raised which, not unreasonably, journalists and members of the public and I'm asking about, and I can assure you the police take these concerns very seriously and they will be responding in due course."

On resourcing, he said there were a considerable number of people under surveillance and many more who were potential liabilities, adding the police and security services "do a fantastic job with the limited resources that they have".

He said: "But their job is made much harder when cuts are made to their resources."

Liberal Democrat former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg defended his party's involvement in the coalition between 2010 and 2015 when policing cuts were made.

Asked if the cuts were a mistake, Mr Clegg told a campaign event in east London: "I'm not going to pretend I can redo history.

"We had a huge job as a coalition government to stabilise the British economy and savings were required across Whitehall.

"The choices people like me took, and I intervened personally to make sure those savings were not for instance imposed on schools budget - which are now being, alas, imposed with some very profound consequences by the Conservative plans - we decided to keep NHS funding pretty stable.

"I think those were understandable choices at the time."

Mr Clegg said there was a "stark difference" in the approaches of the Tories and Lib Dems after the 2015 election, with spending plans for the future also "significantly different".