First thing this morning I went up to Durham to attend a regional conference with Councillors, Party members and my fellow regional Conservative MP, Guy Opperman.
At noon I was in Middlesbrough for the funeral of Sir Stuart Bell. It was a moving service, attended by a large number of the region’s Labour MPs, Ian Swales from Redcar and Labour Leader Ed Miliband. Both Ray Mallon and Steve Gibson spoke about their own memories of Sir Stuart and an impressive and moving speech was given by his son. Sir Stuart was always kind and generous with his time whenever I saw him, he will be missed by many.
