New MP's pledge to protect Hitachi factory

Labour's Alan Strickland won the newly created Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor seat

A new MP pledged to protect a closure-threatened train factory on his first day in office.

Alan Strickland vowed to prioritise the future of Hitachi Rail in Newton Aycliffe.

The Labour politician spoke about its importance to his constituency hours after winning the newly created Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor seat on Friday.

He said his first priority would be jobs, apprenticeships and opportunities, "starting with working hard to safeguard the 700 high-tech jobs at Hitachi Rail".

Hitachi officials previously warned that the livelihoods of hundreds of plant workers hung in the balance because of a production gap.

'Lots of words'

The factory, which opened in 2015, is currently making its final trains for Avanti West Coast and East Midlands Railway, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Earlier this year, ministers said they had no plans to order more trains to run on the West Coast mainline, which the firm had viewed as the only viable way to plug the orders gap.

Mr Strickland's pledge to fight for the factory is backed by Paul Howell, the former Conservative MP for the now defunct Sedgefield seat.

Alistair Dormer, Hitachi’s executive vice president of energy and mobility, previously called for action on day one of the new government to protect the hundreds of jobs.

He said: "We’ve had lots of words, which is very nice, but we need action."