LABOUR leader Keir Starmer acknowledged that his party needs to ‘rebuild trust’ among North-East voters on a visit to the region today.

With some polls suggesting that the Conservatives are leading the Hartlepool by-election race, Mr Starmer said he wants residents to know that Labour is fighting for them and has a plan to create thousands of local jobs in the green energy sector.

Hartlepool was one of the few constituencies that stayed loyal to Labour when the so-called Red Wall in the North East fell to the Conservatives in the last general election and Mr Starmer said the party has to reconnect with the area to win residents’ votes in the by-election.

He said: “We have to rebuild trust, we have to reconnect and we have to make it absolutely clear that the Labour party has changed and is under new leadership and that is why I am here.

“That is why we have got an excellent candidate in Dr Paul Williams who has been on the frontline in the hospital in Hartlepool throughout the pandemic.

“But it is our job to do that reconnection and rebuilding and that is what we are doing.
“That is why we have come with a plan today for jobs of the future to make it absolutely clear that the Labour party under my leadership is centrally focussed on things that matter to people in Hartlepool; jobs, jobs, jobs.

“I have been here twice now and that is the single most often thing that people are raising with me which is why we have got a plan for jobs.

“But it is our job to show that we are under new leadership, that we are rebuilding that trust and that we recognise that our priorities must be the priorities of the people of Hartlepool.”