SOCIALIST MP Andy McDonald has urged Labour to “seize the last chance for a total reset” as Andy Burnham prepares to enter No 10.

Addressing the Big Meeting on Saturday, the Middlesbrough and Thornaby East MP urged his party to learn the lessons of the past and reject the politics of hate and division.

Thousands thronged the Gala Field to hear from speakers including Mr McDonald, leading trade unionists and Durham Miners’ Association (DMA) general secretary Alan Mardghum.

“This year marks the centenary of the General Strike when two million workers from the pits, the steel workers, the railways, the docks and the print works stood together against longer hours and low wages,” Mr McDonald said.

“It ended in defeat because the labour movement was divided.

“Working people paid the price in low wages, unemployment and poverty.

“That’s a lesson history has taught us more than once.

“In 1984-85 the Tories under Thatcher was determined to shut down the pits and put miners out of work.

“Closing the pits, starving our councils, selling off the public assets that made our communities stronger.

“British Telecom, aerospace, steel, British Coal, gas, rail, National Grid — all sold one after another.

“We know just what a disaster trickle-down economics has been.

“Jobs went, incomes were down, private profits went up and Thatcherism continues to this day creating misery, creating division.

“That is what parties of the right do. The Tories did, but Reform are doing it too.

“Their politics serves the wealthy and depends on dividing everyone else.”

Setting out his hopes for a Burnham premiership, he continued: “We have to deliver for working people in our communities, because if we don’t, we won’t get another change for a very, very long time.

“We have to seize this last chance for a total reset, to stop with the mistakes and the terrible judgements.”

To loud cheers from the Marras, he dismissed Sir Keir Starmer’s claims that he took over a “morally bankrupt Labour Party” as “absolute rubbish,” and offered him a history lesson.

“I’ll tell Keir Starmer what moral bankruptcy is. It’s his appointing an apologist for a sex trafficker and a paedophile as ambassador to America” he said.

“It’s saying Israel has the right to cut off water, food, and medical aid to Palestinians when that amounts to genocide!

“And it is vilifying of a good and decent man, Jeremy Corbyn, who he once thanked for his service in leading the Labour Party and called him his friend.”

Mr Mardghum warned the incoming PM to heed the voices of working-class people and not those of the rich and powerful urging him to make cuts to pay for war.

“People like the despicable [Tony] Blair, saying we cannot afford the [pensions] triple lock — that from a multimillionaire who made his fortune on the blood of innocent people!”

He also warned against the threat of Reform, noting they were in the pockets of the same billionaires who had corrupted British politics.

“Every crisis caused by capitalism gets paid for by workers — we as a trade union movement have got to stand up against the racists and the capitalist class!” he roared.

First-time speaker and Durham local Usdaw general secretary Joanne Thomas reinforced the message, telling Labour to look at what was happening to its vote in the region with Reform taking council after council.

“Here in Durham before 2021 Labour had held power for over a century; last year in May Reform swept to power. Labour now has just four councillors.

“In Sunderland it has five, in Gateshead 12; in Newcastle just two. That’s a message Labour needs to hear. We were promised change at the election. We want action on bad bosses, on the cost of living and to make a real difference to people’s lives.”

Acknowledging progress has been made in securing the Employment Rights Act and Orgreave Independent Inquiry, Mr McDonald issued a challenge to Mr Burnham: “With Labour in power, our communities have got to feel the benefit, in their pay packets, their bills and their public services.

“So let’s put the money back in people’s pockets.

“The reset has to be about ending the rip-off in our public utilities that funds private profit for a few.

“No more energy companies taking us for a ride, or water companies squeezing massive dividends from our monthly bills, while at the same time polluting our rivers and seas. No more. That’s the reset our communities deserve.”