James Wharton MP

I had a very useful meeting with Ken Lupton, our Conservative candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner in Cleveland to discuss some of his ideas for the coming months.

This morning I met Thrive, the Church Action Against Poverty Group in Thornaby. I also held a number of meetings and surgeries at my office in Stockton and an open surgery at Yarm library. In the evening I was delighted to be the geust speaker at an event organised by North Tyneside Conservatives.

Some great news today that the contracts have been agreed for Hitachi to bring train manufacturing back to the region. A new plans near Newton Aycliffe will employ around 730 people, with a further 200 in the construction and around 8,000 through the supply chain. This is a huge investment in our region and I was pleased to join the transport secretary, Justine Greening, when she came up to visit the site.

Today I visited HMRC on Teesdale to present a UnionLean quality award. This is just the sort of positive work our Trades Unions can do, contributing to training and wellbeing in the workplace.

I also held a number of meetings with constituents at my Stockton office on a range of issues.

Anne Marie Trevelyan, who stood as the Conservative candidate for Berwick upon Tweed at the last election, is running an excellent campaign to build a case for dualling the A1. She has asked for feedback from local North East businesses via her online survey (www.surveymonkey.com/a1businessview). If any businesses from Stockton South would like to contribute I know it would be appreciated.