MP Helen Goodman's Ingleton blunder a 'terrible mistake'

North Yorkshire's Thornton Force is a popular tourist attraction

An MP who shocked constituents in a village by mixing it up with a place 70 miles away has admitted making a "terrible, terrible mistake".

Helen Goodman praised the area's caves, waterfalls and links to author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when speaking at the Ingleton Village Fair and Classic Vehicle Show in County Durham.

However, those facts relate to Ingleton in North Yorkshire.

MP Helen Goodman has apologised for her error

Organisers said the Labour MP would not be invited back.

'Didn't know'

Mrs Goodman, told BBC Tees: "It's a terrible, terrible mistake.

"I didn't know there was another Ingleton, I only knew about the Durham Ingleton.

"When I was given this piece of paper saying there are caves in Ingleton I thought, 'Fancy that, you learn something new every day'.

"That just shows how wrong you can be."

The MP, who grew up in Derbyshire, made the blunder on Saturday.

She has represented Bishop Auckland since 2005.

A tale of two Ingletons

Twistelton Scars have a distinctive "limestone pavement"

North Yorkshire's Ingleton

• On the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, the area attracts thousands of visitors each year

• It is famous for its miles of waterfall trails and underground rivers

• At 90m long (295ft), Battlefield Cavern in White Scar Cave is one of the longest cave chambers in Britain

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wed in the village

County Durham's Ingleton draws fewer tourists

County Durham's Ingleton

• About eight miles from Darlington, it sits within the shadow minister for culture, media and sport's Bishop Auckland constituency

• It is thought to have started as a Saxon settlement

• It has a population of a few hundred people

• The closest it has to caves are former mine workings