MAGUIRE MEETS Ian Lavery

what people saw was a Tory full of bluster who falls apart when you stand up to them.

“He’s going to get no respect from me or anyone else in Labour.”

The council house boy, who spent 22 years working underground at Lynemouth and Ellington collieries in England’s most northerly county, has not lost the “pitmatic” dialect of Ashington, famous for England football stars Jackie Milburn and the Charltons, Bobby and Jack.

The towns also produced England cricket’s speedsters Steve Harmison and Mark Wood, both pals of Lavery.

His other passions include keeping and racing greyhounds and he enjoys a bet “like most people in pit communities”. But the mines were shut by Tories. Lavery, Arthur Scargill’s successor as President of the National Union of Mineworkers, was arrested repeatedly during the 1984-85 pit strike and beaten up by police.

Elected as an MP in

2010, he has not forgiven Conservatives who mock his northern accent. He Mince and dumplings or coq au vin? What’s coq au vin? The dogs or horses? Greyhounds every day. Brass bands or the London Symphony Orchestra? Ashington Colliery Band.

Kevin Keegan or Alan Shearer? I would have to say Alan Shearer (left).

Newcastle win the Champions League or Labour a general election? You b ***** d. adds: “None of them ever say anything to my face, mind, probably because they don’t talk sense no matter what their background.”

The camaraderie of the pit and instinctive solidarity of working-class communities make Lavery one of Corbyn’s most fervent champions.

He says: “I’ve been lucky to meet wonderful people and Jeremy is one of the most remarkable I’ve come across.

“He is intelligent, knowledgeable, cool under pressure and understands issues and people.

“Jeremy’s a truly decent individual – and when we get him into No10, it would give the country such a boost.”

When we get Jeremy into No 10, it will give the country such a boost