LABOUR’S Shadow Chancellor last night called on the people of the North-East to “get angry” at how austerity was harming their communities.

John McDonnell was speaking ahead of today’s Durham Miners’ Gala which, he said, came at an exciting time for the Labour movement as he believes the prospect of a socialist prime minister is within reach.

“The gala is a fantastic act of celebration and enjoyment,” said Mr McDonnell who first attended the gala in the late 1970s when he was working as a researcher for the National Union of Mineworkers. “It’s a celebration of everything we stand for, of the heroes and heroines who have gone before and who created our movement. Secondly it always has been a display of solidarity with striking workers, and increasingly it is about debating the future.

“This is one of the most exciting periods for the gala. There were worries that it wouldn’t be sustained but it has been secured, it will go on for ever.”

Referring to himself, he added: “People are also excited because no one expected to see a socialist have the potential to walk into No 10 in their life, but with Jeremy Corbyn, we have that potential and hopefully, if he makes the right appointment, a socialist going into No 11.”

Mr McDonnell was speaking yesterday at a People, Pits & Politics fringe meeting in Durham Town Hall. The two-day pre-gala gathering has also featured celebrities like musician Billy Bragg, film-maker Ken Loach and comedian Mark Steel, as well as journalist Paul Mason and politicians including Middlesbrough’s Andy McDonald.

Mr McDonnell told The Northern Echo how Labour wanted to create a national investment bank to channel more money for infrastructure into the regions which needed it most. He said he wanted to create a Barnett-style formula which would should which areas had received under investment.

“The geographical unfairness of investment in this country is set deep in the heart of every department in Whitehall,” he said. “There’s an inbuilt bias that Whitehall knows best. We will address that with an equitable distribution of investment.

“This region gets less than a quarter of transport investment that the south-east gets. People need to get angry about how they’ve been treated.”

Warming to this theme, he said: “Get angry because you have been let down, the fabric of your society has been run down as a result of austerity. Translate that anger into action and that action is about electing a Labour government and helping us prepare for power.”

He said Labour’s membership made it the largest political movement in western Europe and he wanted it to double to one million within a decade.

“Get angry about it by turning up for meetings, get angry about it when we call for demonstrations and come out to support workers who are struggling, but also get angry at the ballot box – there’s no way we will secure this transformation without a Labour government.”

The fringe meeting was infused by the left-wing Momentum group of the Labour Party, and in recent years, North-East Labour MPs who regard themselves as moderate have been disinvited from the gala.

“I hope they participate,” said Mr McDonnell. “The Labour Party has always been a broad church. We respect each others’ views. It’s rumbustious at times, but that’s politics, and as long as it is political and not personal I don’t think it damages us at all, in fact we get better decision-making and politics.

“Our manifesto at the last election was overwhelmingly supported by the party and that unity contributed to the massive increase in majorities achieved even by some of those MPs who were sceptical about Jeremy Corbyn.

“We now have a real unity of purpose.”