On a visit to The Northern Echo's newsroom in Darlington, Sir Keir Starmer has said Labour is a changed party compared to 2019.

The Labour Leader said it would have been disrespectful to voters in the North East to say ‘you’re the ones who got it wrong, we were right all along’ after the damning collapse of the Red Wall.

He said he has turned Labour ‘inside out’ and claimed the party is “fundamentally different” to Jeremy Corbyn’s at the last General Election.

Sir Keir spoke with The Echo’s staff and student journalists from Darlington College and Sunderland University on Friday (April 26).

The Northern Echo: Northern Echo Editor Gavin Foster speaking to Sir Keir Starmer.Northern Echo Editor Gavin Foster speaking to Sir Keir Starmer. (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

The Labour Leader said: “I think we’re making huge progress. We had to be brutally honest with ourselves after 2019. We lost really badly, we particularly lost badly here.

“We had people who’d voted Labour all their lives turn their back on Labour at the last election. The worst election result since 1935.

“I felt very strongly after that loss that we shouldn’t go back to the electorate, come back here and say, ‘What did you think you were doing, didn’t you hear us?’. We had to say it’s the Labour Party that got this one wrong, we had to change the Labour Party.

“The Labour Party going into these Local Elections and going into the General Election is a fundamentally different party to the party in 2019.

“Voters say to us we had drifted too far from where they are, too far from the core concerns of working people and that’s why what I’ve been doing with the Labour Party for the last four years is turning it inside out to take it back to its core purpose of serving working people.”

The Northern Echo: Keir Starmer.Keir Starmer. (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

Sir Keir looks set to become the next PM with recent polling putting Labours projected vote share double that of the Tories.

He reaffirmed commitment to our campaign to save Hitachi in Newton Aycliffe and said he “does not accept” comments made by Transport Secretary Mark Harper on Thursday that the ball was in Hitachi’s court.

He added his “number one mission” was the grow the economy and “get more money into each of our areas and regions”, saying he wants “properly funded public services” and to get the NHS back on its feet.

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Responding to The Northern Echo's exclusive interview with Middlesbrough FC boss Steve Gibson, Starmer said he agreed with the businessman that Ben Houchen had "given away our children's futures" over the deal at Teesworks.

Sir Keir added: "I'm really glad he spoke out. In his position to speak out through your paper was very very powerful and very timely."

The Labour Leader again said he would call in the National Audit Office as he claimed of a "real sense on the ground" at Teesport "that this deal that's been done by Mayor Houchen is going to hold back its potential".