TONY Blair put his foot in it during a whistle-stop tour of his North-East constituency yesterday.

The Prime Minister was being shown round a new factory when he stood in some paint -red paint, as the Labour Party leader was quick to point out.

But that was the only mishap on a whirlwind morning trip around County Durham, in which he also visited two schools and a telephone exchange.

Mr Blair's paint accident happened when he officially opened the Balmer Lindley factory, in Newton Aycliffe.

The company, which manufactures street and motorway lighting columns, has created more than 160 jobs at the former Sanyo microwave oven factory, which was closed in 2001.

Balmer Lindley has taken on workers made redundant from other North-East factories, notably Samsung and Black and Decker, providing hope amid an otherwise bleak outlook for manufacturing in the region.

Opening the factory, Mr Blair said: "It is a fantastic job you are doing here, particularly with some of the other companies having suffered problems or laying people off.

"We need other employers coming in and making use of the skills that we have."

Earlier, Mr Blair faced questions from youngsters at Ferryhill Business and Enterprise College over his controversial plans for student top-up fees.

The Prime Minister remained unruffled throughout, even when the school's fire alarm went off as he talked to pupils.

Mr Blair, who also visited the college's new sports hall, was at Ferryhill to officially recognise the school's specialist status as the first business and enterprise college in the region.

There were no hostile questions during a visit to Trimdon Grange Nursery and Infants School, where he opened an early years learning unit.

After being shown round by new headteacher Catherine Whorton, he cut a cake to mark the occasion.

Mr Blair's first official duty of the day had been at his local telephone exchange, in Trimdon Colliery, to see it upgraded for broadband Internet services.

A £10m scheme by regional development agency One NorthEast and BT, will mean that by next spring, every community in the North-East can be connected to broadband.