PM EYES MAKING HISTORIC GAINS IN NON-TRADITIONAL AREAS Tories look to make gains in North as under-threat Labour MPs stand down Corbyn issues rallying cry at marginal Tory seat
CONSERVATIVES believe Theresa May’s surprise General Election is their chance to make historic gains in the North of England – and demolish Labour’s claim to be the obvious choice for working class Northern voters.
Polling experts say any seat held by Labour with a majority of less than 5,000 at the last general election may be at risk.
That includes North seats such as Middlesbrough South and Cleveland East, where Labour’s majority was 2,268 in the 2015 election; Hartlepool, where the party is defending a majority of 3,024, and Bishop Auckland in County Durham, where Labour’s majority is 3,508.
Tory hopes were buoyed by their by-election win in Copeland, Cumbria, in February. They succeeded in overturning a Labour majority of 2,564.
Sitting Labour MPs in two of the seats under threat have already announced their intention not to stand again.
Middlesbrough South and Cleveland East MP Tom Blenkinsop quit with a broadside at Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, saying; “I have made no secret about my significant and irreconcilable differences with the current Labour leadership.”
Hartlepool MP Iain Wright also said he was standing down.
They were joined by Pat Glass, MP in the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on the general election campaign trail in Warrington
“A message out there of what this country could be. What it could achieve, for everybody. So that nobody and
no community is left behind.
“So when we knock on those doors, the message is of hope, the message is of opportunity,
the message is of decency for older people and opportunities for younger people.
“We embrace the entire safe Labour seat of North West Durham, and Dave Anderson, MP for Blaydon, bringing the number of quitting Labour MPs in the region to four.
Tory whip Guy Opperman, the MP for Hexham in Northumberland, said: “Jeremy Corbyn’s out of touch, London-based Labour Party is no longer the party of ordinary, hardworking people in the North. In fact, four Labour MPs in the North East have already quit the election before it has even begun, including the MPs for the two key marginal seats of Hartlepool and Middlesbrough South.” Conservatives hope to make Brexit the theme of the election, and to contrast what they describe as strong leadership under Conservative Theresa May with the “chaos” that would result if Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn became Prime Minister.
Mr Opperman said: “The North East faces a clear choice between strong and stable leadership in the national interest – with Theresa May as Prime Minister – or weak and unstable coalition government led by Jeremy Corbyn, propped up by Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish Nationalists.”
But Labour hopes to persuade voters the election is about far more than just Brexit. Mr Corbyn launched his election campaign on Thursday with a hard-hitting speech condemning a “gilded elite” who “leech” off lowpaid workers - and named Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley as one of the people in his sights.
He followed this up on Friday by attacking the Tory government for allowing class sizes to rise in primary schools.
Gateshead Labour MP Ian Mearns said: “This is about how a government runs a whole country over a period of five years, not just one issue, however important that may be.
“Theresa May is trying to have another Brexit referendum really, but what we’ve got to do is get the debate round to the other issues of the day, and there are so many of them.
“Education funding, the NHS in crisis, the care system, housing shortages, transport and the crisis which exists in much of our transport system – all of that is going on along with so many other things that are vital to the North of England like local government funding cuts.”
Mrs May said she hatched plans for a snap General Election during a walking holiday in Snowdonia. It means she has gone back on repeated promises that there will be no election until 2020.
Speaking on Tuesday morning, she claimed an election was needed because opposition parties in the House of Commons, and the House of Lords, were trying to undermine the Government’s Brexit plans.
Mrs May said: “Our opponents believe because the government’s majority is so small, that our resolve will weaken and that they can force us to change course. They are wrong.”
However, the Prime Minister has not lost any votes in the House of Commons over Brexit so far.
While the House of Lords did attempt to amend the Government’s legislation allowing Mrs May to trigger Article 50, these changes were overturned by MPs.
The deadline to register to vote is Monday, May 22.
MP Tom Blenkinsop is standing down over “irreconcilable differences” with party leader Jeremy Corbyn GUY OPPERMAN MP