In 2015, Anna Turley was elected Redcar MP for the first time with a 10,000 majority, but four years later, her seat would turn blue in the Tory tsunami that swept across the North. Writing exclusively for the Northern Echo in the first of a series of special reports into Labour’s future, she calls for a total reset of what the party stands for and demands a ruthless focus on what the public want.

A VIDEO from Hartlepool went viral this week with a resident talking powerfully about the impact on the town of reduced doctor numbers, fewer police, the closure of local courtrooms, and worsening health services. The resident rightly and passionately said it was time for a change.

Yet it was Labour that he held responsible, even though all the cuts to which he referred were the consequence of David Cameron, George Osborne and Theresa May’s austerity programme, which took more public money from Hartlepool and the North East than from traditional Tory heartlands down south. It was the Conservatives who he saw as the party of change.

It was the perfect encapsulation of what has gone so catastrophically wrong for Labour in the North East. It is rare you will hear the facts set out that under the last Labour government every neighbourhood had named, visible police officers and tough powers on anti-social behaviour, that you were guaranteed to see your GP in 48 hours, that there was record investment in the NHS with waiting lists limited to 18 months, record numbers of nurses, every school rebuilt, and millions put into areas like Hartlepool with neighbourhood renewal and various regeneration funds, among many other tangible promises delivered in this region.

But since Labour last won a general election in 2005 – when it was firmly a centre-left party - it has allowed itself to become increasingly introspective, self-indulgent, disconnected and self-righteous. The election of Jeremy Corbyn, after thousands of hard-left entryists and ideologues joined the party, put rocket boosters under this direction.

A party that refuses to acknowledge the achievements of its last government is unlikely to convince people to vote for its next one. And one that waves the Palestinian flag from its conference floor but baulks at the flag of its own country will never be able to convince people that it is interested in representing the voters of Hartlepool or fit to govern this country.

The Conservatives on the other hand, have been able to redefine themselves with an alarming lack of integrity or baggage, and the totemic policies of furlough, the vaccination programme, the slogan of ‘levelling up’ (I presume a successor to their vacuous Northern Powerhouse slogan) alongside Ben Houchen’s massive but unscrutinised spending locally, mean they have a compelling offer for a region desperate to believe good things are coming our way.

Labour needs to be as ruthless as the Conservatives at listening, responding and changing. It must ditch the rigid dogmas of ideology, but instead reshape its traditional values of fairness, decency, and opportunity for today’s demands and for tomorrow’s world.

It must be the party that seeks to represent everyone, not just the ‘ideologically pure’ or those it deems worthy of paternalistic help. It must understand aspiration, embody local pride and celebrate success.

This will take hard work and humility from the bottom up to the top and will most likely need a total rebranding and refreshing of what the party stands for and who we seek to represent.

We have done it before, and we can do it again. Keir has to ditch the irrelevant prize of party unity for the only one that matters – electoral victory.

He must have a ruthless focus on what the public want to see from us, and a clear, compelling vision for our region and our country, so that the next time the voters of Hartlepool are asked which party is on their side and will deliver the change they want to see in the town, the answer is Labour.