LABOUR'S Jessie Joe Jacobs made an emotional speech after securing just 25 per cent of the vote in the Tees Valley mayoral election.

Challenging Mr Houchen to deliver on his promise, she made a plea for him not to fail those who had voted for him.

She said: "Many people didn't want to stand against Mr Houchen but I did because of who I fight for. 

"The charity sector where I worked with disadvantaged people from our communities, poeple with no food in their fridges and carpets on their floors, women who sold their bodies so they can have a bed to sleep in or a roof over their shoulders.

"Children who left school without qualifications or skills and ended up on the unemployment line or working on zero hours contract when they were full of talent and at one point in their life full of hope.

"And I stood for them because I believed there was a better way, I stood for them as a beacon of hope that would deliver the big things but also the small things. 

"That would get those great jobs, build our communities, improve public transport and hold the government to account for the things they hadn't done.

"But you know the challenge of renewing hope in our communities was too great, and most of the people who would have benifitted most from a Labour mayor didn't even vote, so we have a job to do to renew hope again in our communities, to renew hope again in the Labour Party. 

"And we've got a job to do to hold you to account and I know we've got some of the big names in the Conservatives here today and I hoped I would see Boris himself because you've now got the police, you've got the health services, you've got the business investment, you've got most of the MPs, most of the councils 

"It is now all on you and it is all on Ben Houchen, and I want you to succeed actually, because if you succeed then children won't go hungry, and if you succeed, we'll get the public transport sorted, we'll get that rail sorted. 

"It's great to have an airport but I want to get to Manchester quicker than I can get to London, I want to get to Newcastle quick because that would improve the condition of life for our young people.

"I want you to invest in mental health services because we are the suicide capital of the UK, and there are children walking to the cliffs. 

"I don't want empty promises, I want delivery because if you don't, the fire that is in me and the courage that is in me to go up against Ben, is in every working class person in this place 

"They're giving you a chance, you fail them and you'll never get anyone, that's all I'm going to say, thank you."