HUNDREDS of disabled workers in the region were celebrating after the Government stepped in to stop Remploy closing factories without its say so.
Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain entered the increasingly bitter conflict by imposing a government veto on any closures.
The move - along with a pledge to use new EU rules to secure more public-sector work for the factories - greatly improve the chances of the factories remaining open.
Mr Hain, speaking at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, also assured the workers there would be no compulsory redundancies.
Remploy had planned to close or merge 43 of its factories, six of them in the North-East and North Yorkshire.
Around 350 workers, including 328 disabled people, face redundancy at Spennymoor, County Durham, Hartlepool, Stockton, York, Jarrow and Ashington, in Northumberland.
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