When Boris Johnson's Brexit bus came to Newcastle

This Morning presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby speak to the media at the time

The Northern Echo’s report on the death of Denise Robertson

This Morning presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, Eamonn Holmes and wife Ruth Lansgford paid emotional tributes to the 83-year-old who died of pancreatic cancer ahead of her funeral at Sunderland Minster.

The street was packed as the hearse pulled up outside the city centre church, followed by the great-grandmother’s large family.

Before the funeral, Schofield said at the time: “She was such a kind, loving person, friend.”

He talked of the emotion of seeing her photo on the wall at the ITV studio.

“We walked past it the other day and I said this feels so wrong, so strange. It’s terribly emotional still in the building,” he added.

Willoughby said: “This Morning is such a family show and she was the matriarch.

“It doesn’t quite feel real.

“All of us need to be here to say goodbye today because she still feels very much part of the show.”

Holmes said he would always remember Robertson with laughter.

Also that week, hundreds of North-East steel jobs had been saved in a £400m deal – and officials refused to rule out a bid to secure more threatened posts in the region.

Tata Steel’s Skinningrove plant

The Northern Echo’s report on the steel deal

Greybull Capital has bought Tata Steel’s loss-making Long Products division for £1, revealing it would trade under the British Steel name.

The investor had also fuelled speculation it would make an approach for Tata’s Hartlepool pipe mills, which was up for sale as the Indian firm shed its entire UK operations to escape financial woes brought on by Chinese dumping and high energy costs.

It had, however, dismissed fears the changes to Long Products could mean job cuts in the division’s 900-strong regional workforce, insisting a £400m package would fund day-to-day work and return it to profit, adding its existing management team would stay to oversee turnaround plans.

Meanwhile, the then mayor of London and Brexit campaign leader Boris Johnson visited the North-East.

The Northern Echo’s report on Boris’s visit

The ripples of excitement built to become boisterous chants as Boris Johnson made his way into a packed room at Newcastle’s Centre for Life.

As the on-message Boris Johnson painted a utopian vision of the UK without the EU, he repeatedly urged supporters to “take control” and “give Britain back its freedom”.

Placard-waving crowds, standing ovations and the assertion of June 24 2016 as Britain’s Independence Day added to the slightly surreal Americanism of the rally

A brief outbreak of dissent saw a small pocket of anti-Tory protestors quickly bundled out of the vicinity by Johnson’s keen team, as impassioned Brexit campaigners booed loudly.

The well-rehearsed staples of the anti-EU campaign were then reiterated.

Much was made of fabled legislation around bent bananas and the apparent absurdity in bureaucrats attempting to control the ‘suckity’ of Britain’s vacuum cleaners.