Luke Akehurst: This is the year we make Britain better for all

2026 is the year Britain turns a corner. And in North Durham and across the North East, we’re going to do it together.

When North Durham residents put their trust in me by electing me as their local MP at the General Election, I promised to help deliver the change our country had been crying out for.

The fair choices Keir Starmer’s Labour Government has made will mean real change for millions of people this year – including here in the North East. And over time, even more people will feel the benefit.

We’re taking action to cut the cost of living, we’re cutting waiting lists, getting more police on our streets, taking money off people’s energy bills, boosting the minimum wage and lifting over half a million children out of poverty. That’s not all we’ve done since the General Election but it shows the Labour choices we’ve made to start turning our country around.

Choices Reform, the Tories and the other opposition parties just wouldn’t make.

This isn’t “mission accomplished” though. I know people are frustrated at the pace of change – and that not enough people are feeling it fast enough. But 14 years of decline can’t be turned around overnight.

Renewing our country is not something that can happen in a matter of months.

From the global financial crisis, through Brexit, the pandemic, and war in Europe, our country has faced huge challenges in recent years. But I, and our Labour Government, are determined to turn things around.

Not by managing decline, but by putting our country back on a stable footing.

And locally over the past year, I have brought £20m of Pride in Place funding to Stanley, I have campaigned to save Chester-le-Street Post Office, introduced new legislation with the aim of reducing vacant properties on our high streets, advocated for improvements in bus transport and argued the case for fair funding for County Durham. I have met hundreds of constituents and local businesses and continue to fight for the interests of North Durham.

Together, we are getting Britain back on track. But we can only give our country the renewal it needs if we come together to reject the division and decline peddled by Reform, the Tories, the Greens, and the others and move forwards with a spring in our step to build a better North East.

And to build a Britain built for all.