After 14 years of Tory chaos and division, working people across the North East are paying the price.

You don’t have to look far to see it. 700,000 more children live in poverty, knife crime tears communities apart, schools crumble over our children’s heads, and the NHS is on its knees.

My changed Labour Party is back in the service of working people. We have a clear plan that will make a real difference to the lives of people across the North East.

Take knife crime, for example. In Hartlepool, I met the mothers of the murdered teenagers Connor Woodley and Jack Brown. Their stories were devastating and their strength was inspiring. They told me there are no consequences for teenagers caught with knives, and no support for teenagers who don’t feel safe.

Labour is committed to halving knife crime. Young Futures hubs will coordinate local services, so young people never pick up a knife in the first place.

But that’s not the only way the government is failing young people.

The North East has the highest rate of child tooth extraction as a result of decay. NHS dentistry is at breaking point.

So Labour will deliver 700,000 emergency appointments, supervised toothbrushing for the children who need it the most, and we’ll reform the NHS dental contract.

Because we need our NHS to be fit for the future. So it’s vital that we learn the lessons from the independent investigation into the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust.

We need a culture change in the NHS to make sure patients and families are listened to. We’ll focus relentlessly on reform, improve regulation of managers, and deliver on the NHS long-term workforce plan to improve inpatient services.

It’s not just the NHS that has suffered under the Tories – it’s our schools too. The Tories’ decision to cut school capital budgets has left children in dangerous RAAC buildings, like St Leonard’s Catholic School in Durham City.

Children can’t receive a first-class education in second-class buildings. So we’ll make sure schools are fit for purpose and children can learn safely.

But children can’t flourish at school if they’re living in poverty at home. The last Labour government lifted over half a million children out of poverty. This Labour government will develop an ambitious new cross-government child poverty strategy that underpins everything we do.

For children to have the opportunities they deserve, for example, parents need to have good, secure jobs. The workforce at Hitachi is staring down the barrel of devastating job losses because this Tory government has refused to deliver a proper industrial strategy.”

All these changes are possible. But you have to vote for it.

Together, on July 4, we can stop the chaos, turn the page, and start to rebuild our country.