When I have interviewed Reeves on her recent visits to the region, it is the passing of powers and funding to Conservative Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen and Labour’s North East Mayor Kim McGuinness that she has sold as key to growth here.
But will all that really transform the fortunes of England’s poorest region and close the longstanding performance gap with the South?
That seems like a leap.
What Rachel Reeves’ speech demonstrated is that big infrastructure improvement requires government action.
The North still has no recent investment to compare to the billions put into London’s Elizabeth Line, and expecting southern success to trickle up the country has not worked for more than a century now.
This was, though, one speech on one day, for a Chancellor that still has a few years to prove northern voters were right to back her party.
But Labour know they can no longer take the people of the North East for granted.
The Conservative’s temporary success of 2019 here proved that, while the rise of Reform UK poses a new threat.
The “Red Wall” of Labour MPs might have been rebuilt last July, but the party will need to keep a firm eye on its shallow foundations to avoid the brickwork crumbling as badly as that Gateshead flyover.
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