Wall still wobbly

WHILE Labour made decent gains elsewhere in the country at Thursday’s local elections, here in the North East they more or less held station.

A few seats were lost here and there – but the devastation wreaked in the so-called ‘red wall’ in 2019 and last year was not repeated.

However, there is absolutely no cause for complacency. Four seats were lost in formerly rock-solid South Tyneside. In Sunderland, council leader Graeme Miller came very close to losing his seat and Labour’s majority remains in single figures.

Despite its lead in national opinion polls, Labour is going to find it very difficult to win the next general election if it does not rebuild the red wall in the North East, the North West, Yorkshire and the West Midlands.

It is clear that the party still has work to do to restore confidence in a post-Brexit North East. Thursday’s holding of the line is just the start.