The second Saturday in July means one thing for a quarter of a million people across the North East. The Durham Miners’ Gala.
The joy of meeting old friends in the crowds and making new ones.
The thrill of watching the brass bands and banners marching down the hill.
The amazing sense of community.
It’s a buzz I’ve looked forward to since first coming 20 or more years ago as a young trade unionist. I am gutted to be missing it.
This year, I know the Gala is going to feel even bigger, even better – especially with the prospect of football coming home.
The Big Meeting is the largest celebration of working-class culture in the world.
Angela Rayner at the Big Meeting in 2023 (Image: Gavin Havery) The shared history and hardship endured by ex-pit villages will be felt all along the streets of Durham this weekend. It isn’t good enough to shy away from the reality of what happened.
That enduring emotional connection runs deep in the communities that built their lives around the pits.
When they shut, people drew comfort from what was left – the history, the memories, the bands and the banners.
The Gala is still going strong because it resonates with people’s enduring emotional connection to their communities.
But it’s not just our former mining communities that are struggling.
Everywhere you look, people are feeling the impact of 14 years of neglect: boarded-up shops, the soaring cost of living, eye-watering mortgage and rent payments, and a widening gap in earnings with London.
It’s families in work, with two or even three wages coming in, who still can’t make ends meet. And we all know average wages in the North East are the lowest in the country. That’s not right.
For too many people, in all parts of the country, the foundations of a good life – a secure home, decent work and a strong community – are out of reach.
Keir and I are under no illusion about the hard yards needed to repair the economic damage left by the last government.
But now we are in a position to do something about it. We have a Labour government that will always put national interest ahead of political self-interest. You only have to look at the creation of the NHS, the welfare state and council housing to see our record in power of improving people’s lives.
Under Keir’s leadership, as a government of service we can make a real difference to working people and families.
We will get a Bill in Parliament in the first 100 days to deliver on the New Deal for Working People. It is the biggest upgrade to rights at work in a generation. The ban on exploitative zero-hour contracts and an end to ‘fire and rehire’ means more security and respect. And for the first time, the minimum wage will take account of the cost of living. Two million of the UK’s lowest-paid will be among those benefiting from higher wages.
In good news for Northern Echo readers, our plans also help workers in the ‘everyday economy’. In the North East, that’s more than two thirds of jobs, the very backbone of our public services. It’s doctors, nurses and teachers. The people who drive our buses, trams and trains, and who look after our children and elderly. And who work in often lower-wage sectors such as hospitality, retail and food processing.
Angela Rayner address Durham Miners' Gala in 2017 (Image: Gavin Havery) In the austerity years, I saw for myself as a union official how it ripped through the North East. But it wasn’t always that way. During my lifetime, I have also known Hartlepool, Humber, Teesside and Tyneside as flourishing places of growth. And under this government they will be again.
Our plan to power up Britain is supported by a modern industrial strategy and a green prosperity plan for 650,000 new, skilled jobs of the future. A new chapter of growth that’s not just for the North East, however, but every region and nation of the UK.
Local leaders are at the heart of our agenda for change, and important for getting the economy motoring to help working families.
After the empty promises of levelling up, we are handing over real power to our mayors with skin in the game, able to stand up for their communities. They will have the levers to unleash growth from housing and planning to transport and skills.
In what has been a brilliant week, it was great to spend time with the North East Mayor, Kim McGuinness, who came to No10 with eleven fellow Mayors for talks with Keir and me.
In Kim, the North East has a representative who will stand up for the communities that once build Britain and fight to create real opportunities for your region.
So this weekend, amid the tapestries of proud working people’s history, I hope there will be a sense of change for the future.
The Miners’ Gala has a motto: “the past we inherit, the future we build.”
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These words feel particularly significant as I reflect on the first week of a Labour government.
At the historic Big Meeting this weekend, I know there will be discussion about what kind of future we should build.
With this Labour Government, it will be a future that works for working people – for us all.
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