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

Senior Tories congratulated Ben Houchen after he secured a landslide victory in the Tees Valley mayoral contest.

Tory co-chairman Amanda Milling and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were among those who highlighted Mr Houchen’s re-election.

Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “Few have done more to transform a community. Teesside is a very different place.

“Leadership matters. We need more elected mayors delivering for our communities.”

The victory means the Tories have now achieved two parts of the “hat-trick” of electoral successes they have targeted – winning the Hartlepool by-election and retaining the mayoralties in Tees Valley and the West Midlands.

Boris Johnson has said the country was looking to the Government to deliver on the public’s priorities.

Speaking in Hartlepool, the Prime Minister said: “What has happened is that they can see we did get Brexit done and, to a certain extent, they can see that we delivered on that.

“What people want us to do now is to get on with delivering on everything else.

“Number one is continuing the vaccine rollout, making sure that we go from jab to jab, to jab to jobs, jobs, jobs.”

Mr Johnson said the Government has embarked on a “massive project” of “uniting and levelling up” the country.

“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,” he said.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party had not set out “a strong enough case to the country” before the Super Thursday elections.

Speaking to broadcasters on Friday, he said: “I’m bitterly disappointed in the result and I take full responsibility for the results – and I will take full responsibility for fixing this.

“We have changed as a party but we haven’t set out a strong enough case to the country.

“Very often we have been talking to ourselves instead of to the country and we have lost the trust of working people, particularly in places like Hartlepool.

“I intend to do whatever is necessary to fix that.”

Sir Keir Starmer said Labour needed to stop “quarrelling among ourselves” and move beyond factional disputes following the defeat in the Hartlepool by-election and defeats at local authority level.

The party leader told broadcasters: “This is not a question of left or right. It is a question of whether we are facing the country.

“We have changed as a party but we’ve not made a strong enough case to the country, we’ve lost that connection, that trust, and I intend to rebuild that and do whatever is necessary to rebuild that trust.”

Pressed on what that change would look like, he added: “It means stopping as a party quarrelling among ourselves, looking internally and facing the country and setting out that bold vision for a better Britain and changing the things that need changing.

“That is the change I will bring about.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he will do “whatever is necessary” to rebuild trust in the party following its “bitterly disappointing” by-election defeat in Hartlepool.

Sir Keir said: “Very often we have been talking to ourselves instead of to the country and we have lost the trust of working people, particularly in places like Hartlepool. I intend to do whatever is necessary to fix that.

“This is not a question of left or right, it is a question of whether we’re facing the country.

“We have changed as a party. We have not made a strong enough case to the country.”

Sir Keir Starmer said he was up to the job of being Labour leader and that he will set out a plan to “reconnect” the party to voters.

He said: “I intend not only to take responsibility for the results, but to take responsibility for fixing things.

“I will set out what change is needed over the next few days, but I’m absolutely clear in my mind and absolutely determined to do whatever is necessary to fix things and to make sure we can make that case to the country in a compelling way.

He went on: “I will set out what we need to do to reconnect the Labour Party to the voters that have cast their verdict on us last night, particularly in places like Hartlepool.”