I’m proud to be a Geordie.
I’m the son of a roofer and a primary school worker and it’s because of my parents that I was brought up with the values of community, equality and solidarity that are often associated with the North East.
So it’s particularly painful when the current and future political realities for our region place a darkened cloud over the futures of young people like me.
If the last week has been an exercise in anything, it’s showing communities like mine that for many in Westminster, Brexit is a game to be won or lost. The consequences for people across the United Kingdom comes second.
This trend began a long time ago.
For the past eight years, our region has been ignored and divested from.
Cuts have been imposed for all to see, resulting in the biggest food bank in the country on my doorstep.
We have the highest rate of unemployment nationally, with our public services being disproportionately targeted by ideologically driven austerity.
We will be hit by Brexit the hardest, for the longest – for a future we didn’t ask for, because of a past that didn’t exist.
So it is unsurprising that when David Cameron decided to put party before country in calling the referendum two years ago, people in my community decided to vote in a majority for £350 million pounds for their hospitals and GP surgeries.
People in the North East decided to say yes to change and no to the continuation of not having a stake in their futures, or having control over their lives.
However, what is clear now is that this change voted for by a majority in the North East will not bring about the control or future promised.
The deal is botched, the future for Theresa May looking bleak. The Government’s own released impact assessments (which were optimistic to say the least) show that we – the poorest region in the UK – will unsurprisingly be hit hardest, with upwards of 11% of our GDP lost.
We cannot allow this to happen.
While the Westminster elite argue among themselves, and the Tories fight this seemingly never ending internal battle in putting party before country, they ignore the real issues that affect people from my city.
Young people – not just in Newcastle but across the UK – deserve more. We want more.
Most of Westminster will be obsessing over one number – 48, the number of letters needed to trigger a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister.
For us in the North East, the numbers we are concerned about are far scarier; 100,000 jobs in our region linked to EU exports.
Companies like Nissan, Rolls Royce and Hitachi have already threatened to withdraw thousands of jobs based in Sunderland and Sedgefield if the government proceeds down this route of self-destruction.
The prospect of this damage is now rightfully shifting public opinion, with my constituency of Newcastle North among many others on the remain side. As a region, 54% of people would now back a fresh vote in a no-deal scenario.
The one group whose opinion hasn’t shifted significantly is young people – we were already there.
We will be hit by Brexit the hardest, for the longest – for a future we didn’t ask for, because of a past that didn’t exist.
In London, the majority of MPs have thankfully came out in support of a People’s Vote.
It takes a bravery of an altogether different kind in the North East in former Leave constituencies.
Phil Wilson, Anna Turley and company should be applauded for standing up for their constituents when the easy path would be to stay quiet.
Now that the deal is here – and it’s everything you wouldn’t have hoped for – MPs have a choice to make: Fighting the real threat to their young constituents’ jobs, or a perceived one to their own.
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