South Shields MP Emma Lewell-Buck urges Labour to work on “repairing and rebuilding” the party following General Election defeat

In a statement put out to her 20,000+ followers Emma Lewell-Buck has appealed to those in her party to pull together after the Conservative’s landslide victory in this week’s General Election.

The Tories won with an 80 seat majority, unseating MPs in traditional Labour constituencies across the North East, including Blythe Valley, Durham North West and Sedgefield.

Ms Lewell-Buck, who has represented South Shields since 2013, was re-elected with a majority of 9,585 - one of the largest Labour majorities in the region, although it has fallen considerably compared to 2017.

In her speech after successfully defending her seat she hit out at the current state of “toxic” politics.

Now the MP and former shadow minister has said that she is “utterly heartbroken” at the result for Labour and to lose so many “amazing colleagues”.

After a break from social media she said she was “dismayed” at what she had seen on Twitter, before posting a statement aimed at her Labour colleagues.

“The blame game is not helping, it is tearing us further apart at a time when we should be coming together,” she wrote.

“We can either do what we always seem to do in our party and spend the next few months ripping each other to bits or we can work on repairing the damage, rebuilding our party and reaching out so that everyone who so desperately needed us to win but felt they simply couldn’t trust us and vote for us does so in the future.”

She went on to say that her focus would be on “cushioning the blows to come” for her constituents over the next five years of Tory government and urged others to do the same.

“The next five years are going to be difficult for those who needed a Labour government the most, those of us in Parliament need to be absolutely focused on cushioning the blows to come for the people we represent and the people our party was created for, not fighting amongst ourselves.

“That is where my focus will be.”