Boris Johnson has visited the north-east of England a year after taking traditional Labour seats on the way to his general election win.

The Prime Minister arrived in Blyth, Northumberland, where a major investment in an electric vehicle battery plant which could create up to 8,000 direct and indirect jobs was announced overnight.

Mr Johnson visited the ORE Catapult wind turbine testing plant beside the docks in the town, meeting apprentices under a 107m-long (351ft) blade.

The huge turbines will be used in the Dogger Bank wind farm, set to become the world’s largest when it it completed, 120km (74 miles) off the Yorkshire coast in the North Sea.

The SSE project will build 190 turbines standing 260m tall (853ft). They could generate enough power for six million homes, once the second phase is finished.

Last month Mr Johnson announced a 10-point green recovery plan.

Ian Levy, a former mental health support worker, won the seat of Blyth Valley for the Tories in 2019, the first time they had taken Blyth since the constituency was formed in 1950.