Labour leader Ed Miliband sent a message to his troops in Teesside that he wants them to throw “both his kitchen sinks” at the party’s bid to turn Stockton South from blue to red.
His close ally Tom Watson was in Teesside on the campaign trail to support the party’s Stockton South candidate Louise Baldock.
He said Conservatives and UKIP were getting ready to go into coalition – despite Tory Chief Whip Michael Gove ruling out the prospect yesterday – and insisted a Labour Government would have the North East at its heart.
“There are 19 days to go and it is neck and neck. Louise has got to be an MP if Ed is going to be a Prime Minister,” he said to Labour supporters at their campaign office in Thornaby.
“I spoke to Ed on the phone yesterday and I told him that I was coming to see you. He told me to say that he wants you to throw both his kitchen sinks at it in the next 19 days.”
Speaking afterwards, Mr Watson said Labour would create a regional investment bank to plan long-term industry support and job creation.
Tom Watson Labour MP with labour parliamentary candidate for Stockton South Louise Baldock
This comes after fresh figures revealed 50,000 jobs have been created under the Coalition in the North East, though Labour disputes how many of those jobs are part-time and zero-hours. Mr Watson said: “Words I would use to describe Ed are decency, thorough; ‘big picture’ but with the ability to be forensic; and a little bit Clement Attlee/a little bit Harold Wilson.
“In terms of understanding the regions, particularly this region which has a very powerful history and a strong identity, probably the biggest thing that he will do for this region is to stop the ‘casino banking’ in the city of London and set up a network of regional investment banks.
“We need to invest in industries of the future and take a long-term view. I remember from days before I was an MP how some of the speculative investments could be taken away so quickly, not least in the ’90s when the investment for Siemens was pulled overnight.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, he will have the North East at the heart of what he does.”
He slammed the Conservatives plan to extend the right to buy scheme to housing associations. He said: “Right to buy is a short-term political idea for an election. It is not going to end homelessness. It is not going to build the houses this country needs.
“What this country needs is decent, affordable homes, reforms in the private rental sector and more council houses.”
He said a Tory-UKIP pact was on the cards.
“We have already seen Nigel Farage telling people to vote Conservative in areas where UKIP aren’t going to win – they are going to do a deal,” he said. He would not be drawn on whether UKIP was secretly backing the Tories in North East seats, but he said Conservative support had dropped in the Stockton South constituency.
Nigel Farage
“I know there is a lot of money being spent by the Conservatives in this seat, like many other target seats,” he said. “The membership of the Conservative Party has pretty much eroded, if it is not non-existent, so they are buying the illusion of presence with glossy advertising and direct mail.”
He said a Labour-SNP coalition was not planned.
“Ed has been pretty clear that Labour will not do a deal with the SNP,” he said. “They are a nationalist party and it is just not possible for us to do a deal that would allow the SNP to have cabinet ministers.
“What the North East needs is progressive Labour government that will devolve power to the regions.”
Asked whether a Labour Government would listen to members of the Northern TUC, who want a fresh referendum on an independent regional government, Mr Watson said the plan to devolve power to local government was already in place.
He said: “The recent history of referenda is not a good one, if you look at the independence referendum in Scotland. People forget we had a referendum on changing the voting system.
“That was a washout – hardly anyone turned out for that and they decided to keep the status quo.
“What I think is important is that we devolve power out of Whitehall into regions and local authorities. I’m not sure a referendum would be the way to do it.”
The politician also refused to distance himself from calling the former Education Secretary Michael Gove a “miserable pipsqueak” in the House of Commons, something which was deemed not to be proper. The Conservative, who is now the party’s chief whip, had just scrapped the Building Schools For The Future programme, a flagship New Labour policy, something which Mr Watson says “deprived a lot of children from getting new classrooms”.
“I still get teachers emailing me saying ‘we have had a terrible day at work but we are in the staff room watching you on YouTube laying into Michael Gove and it has cheered us up’.”
James Wharton, the Conservatives’ candidate for Stockton South, stressed a coalition with UKIP would not happen, adding: “Unlike the Labour campaign, I have been working hard in Stockton South all year round. People who live here know I don’t just turn up at election time.
“It will certainly be a close contest but Mr Watson would be better talking about things that he actually knows something about rather than about this area when he only drops in for a photograph.
“We are fighting to win a majority – I don’t see any realistic prospect of UKIP being in government with anybody but it is less scary than Ed Miliband and the Labour Party propped up by the SNP.”
