Levelling up Britain: Blyth's hopes rest on Tory promises of a new dawn
The Guardian finds high expectations in the Northumberland town, of new jobs and better transport links
On a cold, grey day in Blyth, as intermittent rain catches shoppers and the wind swirls off the North Sea to blow umbrellas inside out, it isn't hard to see why the town on the Northumberland coast has felt unloved in recent years.
"It looks really desperate," says Ian Levy, the first Tory MP to represent the town in almost a century, as he strides across the empty marketplace. The market is off today, and it is a quiet afternoon belying the political earthquake here in December, when Blyth Valley became Labour's first "red wall" seat to crumble at the election.
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