North East Party candidate launches his Hartlepool by-election campaign with 'passion and anger'

Former Labour MP Hilton Dawson used the easing of lockdown restrictions on March 29 as an opportunity to make a socially-distanced address to supporters near the town’s statue of cartoon character Andy Capp.

Prior to the launch, he talked about how a Hartlepool resident had spoken with him recently.

Mr Dawson said: “About the same age as me, she told me that she grew up in the town, described a community that I recognised, a working class community formed out of hardship, but friendly and warm, where they’d welcome people & leave their doors unlocked.

“These days, in Hartlepool, she keeps her doors locked against casual theft, guards her car against vandalism and tells me of her neighbours who have just had a lump of concrete thrown through their living room window.”

He said the woman also raised concerns over travelling out of town for hospital services and questioned “why can’t there be more for older people, more centres and places to combat all this loneliness once we emerge from Covid-19?”.

Mr Dawson, who lives in Northumberland, was Labour MP for Lancaster and Wyre from 1997 until he stood down in 2005 to return to work in children’s services.

He helped launch The North East Party in 2014 and added: “I come to this election out of principle, to make the case for devolved democracy and fair taxation and today I’m launching our campaign with passion and anger because I know that however difficult the problems a Member of Parliament can always get things done.”

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