Thirteen years of Conservative mismanagement has left our public services in disarray.

The NHS is without the doctors and nurses it needs. Hospitals are crumbling.

People are finding it impossible to get a GP appointment or an operation when they need one: in February 2023, 3,227 people in Sunderland waited more than 28 days for a GP appointment.

Trials are delayed for years because of the biggest courts backlog on record, with a record number of criminals getting off scot-free.

But it isn’t just our public services that are struggling.

People are paying the price with the Tory mortgage penalty and rising energy bills and food prices. Wages have stagnated and taxes for working people have risen.

Our childcare system is broken. All too often children are held back because of where they’re born, or by their circumstances and family background.

I have visited schools and colleges across our region and parents and staff are crying out for change.

As Shadow Education Secretary, I have campaigned long and hard for free breakfast clubs for every primary school child, to make sure that all children get the best start to their day, in addition to providing immediate support to families.

We understand that times are tough, and people need help now to get through this cost of living crisis.The Tories’ fingerprints are all over people’s struggling household budgets, and they’re happy to watch our communities work to live, not live to work.

That’s why Labour would freeze your council tax this year, funded by a proper windfall tax on oil and gas giants.

We would keep your energy bills low, for good, by properly insulating 19 million homes.

And we need more doctors, not more non-doms.

That’s why we would close the non-dom tax loophole, so that money can be better spent on the biggest expansion of the NHS workforce in a generation, and free breakfast clubs in every primary school.

I am proud of our city and our region. We have real potential; the Conservatives just don’t want to unlock it.

For too long, this Tory government has left people out of pocket and prioritised the wealthiest 1%, rather than put working people first.

Labour under Keir Starmer would make different choices, bringing down the cost of living, and building the better Britain we all want to see.