After a day of media speculation, the Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak finally announced that he was calling a General Election on the 4th July. The Labour Party is ready for this election and the Hexham CLP has been working for a Labour victory for over a year. Sunak’s Tory government is out of time … Read More
After a hard fought campaign Kim McGuinness has been elected as the first NE Mayor. This is a historic victory which saw Kim win 185,051 votes (41%), with independent Jamie Driscoll in second place on 126,652 and Conservative Guy Renner-Thompson in third place on 52,446. A full list of candidates and vote share can be … Read More
Our Parliamentary Candidate Joe Morris has revealed shocking figures that show 35.9% of bus services in Northumberland have been axed under the Conservatives. Despite the Conservatives promising “bus services so frequent you wouldn’t need a timetable” in 2022, the total number of miles driven by buses in Northumberland plummeted by from 13.8 million kilometres driven … Read More
A Happy and Spooky Halloween to our members, supporters and readers! The government chose today to announce that it will abandon its controversial plans to close hundreds of train station ticket offices, including Hexham, in a cost saving measure. It was an immensely unpopular policy that saw passengers, unions and disability rights groups united in … Read More
Yesterday the CLP met in Hexham for the hustings and selection process for the Labour Party’s Parliamentary Candidate for the Hexham Constituency. After listening to the speeches and questions and answers from the two candidates (the third had withdrawn earlier in the day) members voted. The ballots cast in person and the postal votes were … Read More
The Conservative Party Conference in Manchester has surfaced yet again all of the divisions and lurches to the right that characterise Rishi Sunak’s government. The PM himself has engaged in a strange kind of political pantomime over HS2. This High Speed Rail Link, originally intended to link London with Leeds and Manchester via Birmingham, was … Read More
The Allen Valleys Labour Party Supporters’ Group held a Labour Party stall at the Allendale Agricultural Show today. Local members and supporters on the stall chatted with friends, neighbours, local people and visitors to the area about a range of issues including bus services, affordable housing, the cost of living crisis, the water quality in … Read More
Proposed changes to our railways will see many ticket offices closed and reduced staffing at stations. The proposals include closing the ticket offices at Hexham meaning that (with the additional planned closure of Carlisle booking office) the only staffed ticket office on the Tyne Valley Line will be at Newcastle. Train operators have outlined that … Read More
Jonathan Reynolds MP, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, responding to Jaguar Land Rover’s Gigafactory announcement, said: Labour welcomes any investment in British jobs and industry and decisions like these vindicate Labour’s advocacy of an industrial strategy in place of scattergun announcements. In spite of the Government’s cack-handed approach to industry and our economy this shows the … Read More
The Tories’ 13 years in power have seen bus services across the country suffer. In Northumberland alone it has been calculated that over 3 million miles of bus journeys have been lost since 2016 in a sustained decline. In a betrayal of the government’s ‘levelling up promises’ almost one in ten of Britain’s rural bus … Read More
Labour has today pledged ‘a bright future’ for British industry under a Labour Government ahead of Keir Starmer’s speech to the British Chambers of Commerce on Wednesday. New analysis shows Labour’s plans to part-finance eight gigafactories will boost jobs in the automotive sector by 50%, creating 80,000 jobs and powering nearly two million electric vehicles. … Read More
Northumberland has the third highest number of potholes of any county in the country. Over 51,000 potholes were recorded in the year 2021/22 according to reported recently in the Northumberland Gazette. Potholes are caused by damage and erosion to road surfaces by heavy traffic, inclement weather and also by sub-standard repairs caused when utilities and … Read More
The country is in a mess after 13 years of Conservative Government. It’s difficult to point to anything that is working better now than in 2010. Help us to do something about it. It’s time for a change in Hexham Constituency. Hexham deserves better than Guy Opperman and a failed Conservative government. Join us to … Read More
From the Financial Times 13.09.19 Boris Johnson to hand powers over railway budgets and timetables to metro mayors Jim Pickard in London, Andy Bounds in Southport and Chris Tighe in Newcastle Elected mayors in the north of England are to be given London-style powers over their railway budgets and timetables in a step forward for … Read More