well in a month's time voters across the
United Kingdom will be voting in the
general election and as the campaign
progresses BBC News is continuing its
series looking at political priorities
in different parts of the UK and tonight
my colleague Clive Murray is in the
northeast of England and in the
constituency of Bishop Auckland let's
join him now thanks Hugh what a
fascinating constituency this is the
town of Bishop Auckland is itself proud
of its industrial past the railways and
coal mining but the death of traditional
industry has hit this area hard and
there is a sense that the town has never
really recovered politically it's also a
bellwether for the rest of the Northeast
while the constituency is a mixture of
post-industrial town's pretty market
towns and agricultural communities
historically it's been a Labour
stronghold in general elections and
barring for years in the 1930s labour
has held bishop open since 1918 but this
majority has been slowly whittled away
over the years it's now down to just
over 500 votes and that's made it a key
conservative target in this election
when it comes to brexit it was a
decisive vote with 61% of people here
choosing to leave the union well in the
two days that we've been here we've
spoken to a number of people who feel
this place has been forgotten since the
heyday of its industrial time when
Bishop Auckland was truly on the map
it's my turn 8-bit of orphaned in the
ammeter Cup final at women there was a
time when the whole country knew of
Bishop Walker its footballers lit up
terraces the way the region's cold lit
up homes the teams fans working miners
and families with their political
allegiance always the neighbor but
there's been disappointment to the
forgetting that this place exists since
the pits closed when the football was
good and now there's anger for some at
this working men's club that Labor's
handling of brexit they say is a final
kick in the teeth ask Kevin an NHS
hospital worker switching from labor to
Tory
oh just my maybe been ignored or the
Northeast it's the seventeen point four
million people who who've ordered to
leave and you're fed up of that
absolutely fed upon I've had it up to
here are Shannon Silent Witness to
thousands of conversations I think a lot
of people end up voting conservative
rather than never
yeah from what I'm hearing anomaly vote
Labour are you thinking you might go
this time I'm undecided and asked John
unhappy but unable to bring himself to
vote conservative what about the bridge
[Laughter]
which sounds as if you might reluctantly
end up voting labour probably the brexit
party candidates standing here could
split the leave vote but as allegiances
shift a changing of the political
weather wouldn't be down to just brexit
years of neglect will play their part to
Auckland castle with his priceless
paintings has been
stored with money from a local
multi-millionaire Jonathan Ruffer is
also financing museums galleries Gardens
shaming past governments of all stripes
the purpose of what we're doing is to
help a community find itself
canta Durham has been under the cosh for
a long time but what we knew was that
this was about people
it wasn't about its buildings pictures
anything else and if you care for people
they respond Bishop Auckland a currently
mid-table in the Northern Football
League but how to bring back the glory
days better jobs futures for young
people hope that's what next month's
election is all about well with me is
the BBC's political editor for the
Northeast and Cumbria Richard Moss
Richard um obviously we didn't talk to
every single labour voter in this
constituency there are going to be some
who are happy with labor starts
nationally on brexit but given what
we've heard today how much trouble are
they in well labour candidates in seats
like this across the Northeast will say
they do have two problems on the
doorstep one is brexit the other one is
Jeremy Corbyn because they're finding it
very difficult to persuade voters to
give him a chance they sometimes like
his policies but they have a real
hostility to the labour leader in
addition to that they're facing
Conservative Party that's learned some
lessons from 2017 and it's not just
banging on about brexit constituencies
like this is talking about more police
on the streets investment in schools and
hospitals the challenge for the Tories
is though cuz it's Kanak of it's
communities like this that were affected
by austerity that they are the party
that will put it into reverse can they
overcome the fact that they unlike
labour we don't have the kind of
electoral machine in history in places
like this that still does matter and the
third complication the brexit party is
still standing in suits like this in the
northeast now they hope that they'll do
as much damage to labour as they do to
the Conservatives but actually you know
conservative candidates and suits like
this would bite the hands off a brexit
party canvas if they said look we'll
leave labour the Conservatives to it
here so they will not count on seats
like this even though labour
bonds are being stretched to the limit
until the votes start being counted on
December the 12th