Bell: Labour benefited the north east

Sir Stuart Bell, Labour MP for Middlesbrough, places the blame for a perceived north-south divide on the Conservative government of the 1980s.

“The reason there’s a north-south divide is because we lost our major industries in the 80s, like steel and shipbuilding, and jobs from those sectors went into the public sector.

“We recalibrated the economy along those lines to the benefit of the north east.”