With the North East preparing to vote at tomorrow’s General Election, Labour and Angela Rayner brought their ‘battle bus’ to secure some last minute votes.

The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party arrived at the car park behind The Griffin pub in Thornaby, Stockton today (July 3) to back Stockton West MP candidate Joe Dancey.

Among those attending, Andy McDonald, who is defending his seat in Middlesbrough, and Alex Cunningham, who has stepped down as Stockton North MP, were there to show support.

(Image: Michael Robinson)

Here is what Angela Rayner and Joe Dancey had to say ahead of the election:

Q. The Northern Echo has published a manifesto outlining what we believe the North East needs government to deliver on, regarding dental services, Hitachi, the inquiry into Tees, Esk, Wear and Valley Trust, and many more. If Labour wins, when can we expect work to begin on that and results to be delivered?

Angela Rayner: “Keir has set out that we have to start immediately, and if we are lucky enough to win on Thursday, if people go out and vote for us, we’ve already said we’d cut the summer recess and we’d be right on it because there’s so much to do.

“Dentistry is a real black spot up and down the country now where people can’t get a dentist, we’ve committed to making sure that we have NHS dentistry and it’s a number one priority for the incoming Labour government.

“You’ve talked about Hitachi, we’re committed to that, the NHS and the particular problem here, again, Wes [Streeting] has said that he’ll meet with the families, that the report, the recommendation, should be implemented.

“All of us are under no illusion about the challenge that we face, but the choice really is, change under Labour in the next few days if people vote tomorrow, or an emboldened, more-of-the-same chaos under the self-serving Conservatives that we’ve had.

“We want people to put their trust in us again, we want to work with campaigners like The Northern Echo to make sure that the people’s priorities here are our priorities, and that we can deliver for people.”

Q. Going on from Levelling Up and circling back to Hitachi, hundreds of jobs and the futures of workers and families are at stake currently with the uncertainty surrounding it, it was seen as a big boon for the North East when it opened in 2015, and with the scrapping of HS2 and these jobs up in the air, North East workers would be forgiven for being quite disillusioned with this Government and a failed promise.

Can Labour deliver on these promises, and why should people in the North East vote for Labour?

“First of all, Labour is committed to Hitachi and we’ve got an industrial and skill strategy, which the Government have failed, they promised an industrial strategy and they also promised an employment bill. They didn’t deliver on both of those things.

“Delivering an industrial and skill strategy, and the new deal for working people, and that investment in areas like this, we can really turn things around.

“I’d say the biggest thing, and Rachel’s talked about this a lot, is stability is change. The chaos that we’ve had under the Tories has pulled out investment. What we need to do is bring investment back. That’s why many businesses are supporting Labour this time round because they can see that we’ve got a real plan to make that happen.

(Image: Michael Robinson)

“What we’ve had under the Tories is this slogans on the side of a bus, broken promises, what we’re promising is the hard yards to make that happen, and that does take time, some things will happen immediately, my new deal within the first 100 days, working with business, Rachel’s already announced that she will be meeting some of the leading businesses and the world of enterprise to make sure we can bring that investment back to areas like the North East.

“The biggest challenge that our economy has had has actually been the Tories and the chaos that they’ve provided. They crashed the economy, we’ve had countless Prime Ministers, countless chancellors, we’ve had double digits of housing managers. We just can’t carry on with this, it’s really had an impact on investment into the UK.

“We can turn that around really quickly by bringing that stability and that programme for change.

Joe Dancey, Labour’s candidate for Stockton West, said: “Dentistry is one of the issues that comes up the most on the doorstep, the lady who spoke to me in Elm Tree, who lost her NHS dentist, had an abscess and was then forced to pay thousands of pounds to get it treated privately.

“It’s something which Labour’s dentistry rescue plan will make a real difference in, that people are crying out for change on such an important issue.”

Q. Are you both looking forward to the election tomorrow?

Angela Rayner: “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to serve in a government. I’ve been an MP now for nine years and it’s an honour and a privilege to do that, but in opposition, you can’t affect change. That’s been the frustration for me.

“I saw what the last Labour government did for girls like me, the sure start centres, the working tax credits. These really mattered and really changed my life and people like me, and I want the opportunity to serve and to really prove to those that put their trust in me over the years that we can deliver.

“That’s what I’m looking forward to. If people don’t vote for it, we could wake up on Friday morning and it be five more years of the Tories, so people have to go out and vote for that change.

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“If people put that trust in us, we can really start that process of delivering.”

Mr Dancey said: “I went to school in Stockton, I grew up here, I’ve been working with Teesside industry here for the last decade delivering.

“The opportunity to try and serve the community I’m from and help support a Labour government in Parliament if the electorate choose to vote for me on Thursday is the thing that will drive us forward for the next couple of days of campaigning, and we really want the chance to serve.”