Labour MP says the party has learned from the huge swing to the Liberal Democrats in the constituency at the 2010 election
Gallery: Ed Balls visits Redcar
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He came to talk about the cost of living and ended up in Costa Coffee.
And during a whistlestop visit to Tesco in Redcar, Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls pressed the flesh.
He met with shoppers at what’s sure to be a key seat for Labour in next year’s General Election - with Anna Turley contesting it.
Locals dropping in for their groceries looked bemused to be greeted by Mr Balls holding a melon basket, handing out pieces of fruit.
But winning Redcar back from the Lib Dems is undoubtedly high on Labour’s shopping list.
He said: “There’s a cost of living crisis - people are having a hard time with living standards still under big pressure.
"Labour is the only party saying on childcare, on energy prices, on jobs for young people, on zero hours contracts, we’ve got a plan to make that better.
“It’s also the case that this constituency is vitally important.
"We need to win Redcar from the Liberal Democrats, we need to win Stockton South from the Conservatives in order to get a Labour majority.
"We can’t have the energy price freeze unless we win here in Redcar so I’m also here to back Anna Turley and to say that when she’s out there saying to people in 2010 you voted Liberal Democrat and you got a Tory government, we’re going to try and make sure that doesn’t happen again next year.”
Lessons had been learned, he said, since 2010, where a Labour majority of 12,116 swung to a Lib Dem majority of 5,214.
“We are talking about things which really matter to people and which we weren’t talking about and doing enough about at the time," added Mr Balls.
“We’ve got to show we’ve listened, we’ve learned and we want to do things better in the future.”
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