RECAP: Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits Hartlepool after Conservative Jill Mortimer becomes town's new MP

Boris Johnson met a 30ft inflatable version of himself during a victorious visit to Hartlepool after his party won a historic by-election.

The Prime Minister said the £2,000 replica reminded him of Superintendent Ted Hastings from Line Of Duty, while a member of the press asked if he thought it looked like TV host Chris Tarrant.

Members of Hartlepool’s business community caused a stir when they erected the inflatable outside the town’s by-election count at 4am.

And by lunchtime they had moved it to the marina, the site of the Prime Minister’s news conference and visit to congratulate the winning Tory candidate Jill Mortimer.

The Prime Minister said: “I just want to say a massive thank you to, first of all, to the people of Hartlepool for placing their confidence in us, in the Conservatives.

“I want to congratulate Jill on a fantastic campaign. I think that she’s been a wonderful candidate and fought very, very hard for every vote, I think she’ll be a wonderful MP.

“And for me, what this means is that, I think that it’s a mandate for us to continue to deliver for not just for the people of Hartlepool, not just for the people of the North East, but across the whole of the country.”

Speaking in Hartlepool, Boris Johnson added: “I think if there was a lesson out of this whole election campaign, the whole election, local election campaign, across the whole of the UK, it’s that the public want politicians to get on with focusing on their needs and their priorities.

“So coming through the pandemic, and making sure that we then build back better and you can see some of the evidence of economic confidence that the Bank of England’s been talking about, the prospect of a really strong rebound in the second half of the year.

“I think people want us to focus on that.”

“I think that here in Hartlepool, clearly people were – this is a place that voted for Brexit, and we got Brexit done,” added Mr Johnson.

“And then we’re able to do other things thanks to that and… I’m just going to finish, complete this point, if I can, it’s thanks to, thanks to Brexit that we’ve actually been able to, to go ahead with the freeport in the whole of Teesside, do things like take back control of our borders so we’re able to deal with things like the European Super League.

“And of course, we’re able to do things a bit differently when it’s come to the vaccine rollout that’s been so important, and able to deliver that faster than other European countries.

“So it’s about delivery. It’s about getting on. And I think that’s the mandate that the people have given us and any way, congratulations, Jill and sorry to go on.”

Was a win here really a massive challenge given the Brexit Party vote in 2019 – isn’t it really about Brexit rather than you?

Mr Johnson replied: “This is a constituency that has, I think, been in the hands of Labour since its beginnings. And I think what this election shows is that people want a party and a government that is focused on them, focused on delivering change and that’s what Jill has been campaigning on and that’s why I go on… about the advantages of the things that we’re doing.

“So when you look at the idea of the freeport, the economic campus in Darlington, that’s not very far away. The prospect of high-wage, high-skilled jobs coming here – I just was having a look at this incredible GE turbine factory building colossal wind turbines, just down the road.

“That’s part of the vision that we have for the North East as a centre of the green industrial revolution.

“And I think people understand that, they can see that, and those are the kinds of jobs that not only pay well, they have high skills, but they give you a fantastic sense of doing something worthwhile.”

You said after the 2019 elections, people in the red wall had lent you their vote. Do you think now something else has happened, this is a deeper shift. Is that your hope?

“I think what happened in 2019 was that people mandated us to get Brexit done, and to begin the process of uniting and levelling up.

“And I think that what’s happened now is they can see we did get Brexit done. And to a certain extent, they can see that we delivered on that.

“And I think what people want us to do now is to get on with delivering on everything else.

“And so number one is continuing the vaccine rollout, making sure that we go from jabs, jabs, jabs, to jobs, jobs, jobs, make sure that we have a strong economic recovery, but then get on with the massive project for this country – and it is a very ambitious thing, every government has tried it to some extent, but I don’t think any government has tried it as wholeheartedly as this government is trying – and that is uniting and levelling up.

“And the basic idea is that there is genius and talent and enthusiasm and flair and imagination everywhere in the country but opportunity is not evenly distributed. That’s the basic idea. And that’s what we’re trying to change.”

A few months ago, your prospects weren’t looking so good. They were looking pretty bad. You had poor personal ratings, you were behind in the polls, and then came the vaccine rollout. Has it saved you?

“I think that it’s been very important for our country that we’re able to get through Covid as fast as we can,” said the Prime Minister.

“I think we’ve got to always bear in mind… that this thing isn’t over. I think the epidemiology is very encouraging at the moment, but we’ve got to continue to be cautious.

“And, you know, we will continue with the cautious but irreversible steps of the road map. I can’t see any reason now to delay any of the steps that we’ve got ahead of us but that’s going to be our programme – look at the data, make sure that we proceed in accordance with the scientific evidence.”

The Indian variant (is) now a variant of concern, do you plan to make any changes as a consequence of that?

“What we’re doing there is making sure that we are absolutely ruthless in the surge testing, in the door-to-door tracking of any contacts,” said Mr Johnson.

“At the moment we’re looking carefully at the way the Indian variant seems to function, we don’t see any evidence that it is resistant to the vaccines, or in any way more dangerous.”

You don’t think it could scupper your irreversible path out of lockdown?

“We don’t have that evidence at the moment.”

Your style of politics has worked brilliantly here in England, but in Scotland you are unpopular. What does an SNP outright majority mean for your government?

“Let’s see what happens… let’s see what happens in the course of the next few hours.”

Will you take Nicola Sturgeon to court to stop a second referendum? Your Scottish Secretary has said that you will fight them in court. Would you give me an answer on that?

“My answer is we’re going to wait and see what happens next in the next few hours.

“But my general view is that I think what the people of this country want to see is politicians of all kinds – in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, across the whole of the UK – working together to bounce back strongly from the pandemic.

“And I don’t think people want much more constitutional wrangling right now. That’s my strong view.”