Keir Starmer joined myself and others to see first hand how families in Northumberland suffered the effects of a deadly storm - all while the Tory Government sat idle.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer came to meet those who were left without power for more than a week after Storm Arwen hit.
Thousands across our region were left with no heating or power to cook food after Northern Power Grid struggled to restore services.
I joined Keir at Hadston in Northumberland alongside Labour councillor Scott Dickinson to hear from residents about the lack of Government action in our region, and the lack of leadership from the Prime Minister
Keir said: "People feel very strongly that had this happened in the South East, that this would never have been the case.
“They’re asking why it took the Prime Minister seven days to declare a major incident.
“I don’t think the infrastructure has been strong enough and I think the response has been slow across the board.
“There needs to be a back-up plan, if there is an emergency there needs to be a plan if there is a storm.”
He's right to be angry about this. The feeling throughout our region was that if this disaster had hit London or the South East we would be seeing the PM visiting families and bringing in the military on day one. Instead, nearly 300 miles away and out of sight, we were left having to make do and wait.
It's not good enough.
But there's also a lot of vital volunteer work going on in Hadston to support the local community. If you want to contribute, you can do so here.
https://gofund.me/6c807e75
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