A group of North East MPs have written to the new Transport Minister asking for an "urgent" update on the situation with Hitachi.

The letter from new Labour politicians acknowledges the efforts of the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer to highlight the issue when they were Shadow Cabinet Ministers.

Alan Strickland, new Labour MP for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor, brought the group of new MPs to the Newton Aycliffe factory.

They are extremely concerned about the 700 jobs at risk at the plant and the 1,400 jobs indirectly involved.

The Newton Aycliffe factory is making its final trains for the Avanti West Coast and East Midlands Railway.

The Northern Echo campaigned ten years ago to bring the factory to the region, and are now urging the Government to keep it on track by extending a vital contract to secure its future.

The Chancellor Rachel Reeves has indicated that there might be an option to bring forward additional trains on the Avanti West Coast contract to fill the production gap.

The letter was signed by Mr Strickland, Lola McEvoy, Sam Rushworth, Anna Turley, Chris McDonald, Luke Myer and Mark Ferguson.

Mr Strickland said: "The Hitachi plant puts world-class engineering jobs on our doorstep, providing skilled jobs across the region.

"After Tory dither and delay put the brakes on our rail industry, I'm looking forward to having a constructive dialogue with Labour's new Rail Minister to urgently explore the options for Hitachi."

The factory, which opened in 2015, is continuing talks between Hitachi's UK leadership and civil servants to look at options to maintain production throughout a critical contract gap.

Lola McEvoy, Labour MP for Darlington, said: "The situation facing employees at the Newton Aycliffe Plant needs fixing promptly.

"Hitachi employs many people in Darlington and across the North East and we heard on a recent visit to the site how many times they'd raised the alarm to the last government.

"This is an avoidable situation that requires action and we must take the learnings so we can never leave business and working people in this precarious situation again.

"Thankfully our colleagues in the new Government have already signalled the importance of this issue and we’re keen now to work together on the next steps.

"I and my colleagues will pull every lever available to get these jobs secured."

Read the joint letter in full:

Dear Louise,

Many congratulations on your appointment as Secretary of State for Transport.

As newly elected Members of Parliament in the North East, we would appreciate an urgent update on the work you’ve started to secure the future of Hitachi Rail in Newton Aycliffe.

We strongly welcome the support that yourself, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer showed for the Hitachi plant as Shadow Cabinet Ministers. Following the General Election, we now need to agree a clear way forward.

We visited the plant on Friday. We were deeply concerned by the gap in train orders caused by years of indecision by the previous Conservative government. This puts at risk the factory’s 700 staff and 1,400 supply chain workers, who live in our constituencies. It also risks the long-term future of this world-class manufacturing facility, which is of strategic importance regionally and nationally.

It has taken years of investment and training to build up the highly skilled workforce and retaining these skills must be a priority.

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The Hitachi plant can make a significant contribution to our ambitions for Great British Railways, our industrial strategy commitment to develop UK based manufacturing and to net zero transport networks.

We would welcome an urgent meeting with the Rail Minister to understand the options the Department of Transport is exploring to manage the production gap and the timeline for next steps.

Thank you for your leadership on this important matter.