Since poverty and unemployment forced 200 men from Jarrow to march from the North East to London in 1936, the region has been viewed nationally as one firmly in the Labour mould. Led by their champion, Red Ellen, the marchers took their case to the capital. Now the region has an adopted son installed in Downing Street.

For a Labour government with a massive majority, the North East represents the strongest of its many strongholds throughout the country. With fewer marginal seats than any other part of the UK, the region was the breeding ground of the New Labour ‘mafia’ which romped home to power in 1997. Miners’ hardhats have given way to the smart suits of modern-day socialism.

Just as John Major drew on his East Anglian colleagues to build a government in his own image, Tony Blair drafted in local MPs Peter Mandelson, Mo Mowlam, Alan Milburn, Nick Brown, Hilary Armstrong and Stephen Byers to his first meeting of the Labour cabinet for over a decade.

But the rough and tumble of national politics has taken its toll and Blair has been forced to put the interests of his government before those of the region – with only Armstrong remaining in government throughout the period.

With Alan Milburn having returned to government, and Nick Brown likely to return in any administration led by Gordon Brown, the political fortunes of the region’s MPs may be about to lift in a Labour third term.

Whilst Tony Blair is likely to bow out from representing the region after he stands down from the premiership mid-way through the next Parliament, the new rising star is arguably South Shields MP David Miliband. His meteoric rise to a minister of state rank could result in the region securing a second Labour leader and potential prime minister within one generation. Other ministers who hail from the region include prominent left-winger Chris Mullin, with Newcastle MP Douglas Henderson and Gateshead’s Joyce Quin having joined the growing band of former Labour front-benchers.

After being blighted by the downturn in mining and manufacturing, the region’s economy has recovered in parallel with Labour fortunes, leaving the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats the outsiders. Both parties hold a single seat in the North East – the Liberal Democrats’ standard-bearer being Alan Beith in Berwick-upon-Tweed, and the Conservatives relying on Peter Atkinson in the marginal Hexham constituency.

Whilst Michael Howard hopes for a revival, the electoral arithmetic suggests Labour MPs are looking over their shoulders to insurgent Liberal Democrats, rather than living in fear of a phoenix-like Tory recovery. In the once-blue constituency of Stockton South, Labour has built a majority of nearly 10,000.

The last election saw Charles Kennedy’s party make significant inroads into Labour majorities around Durham, which culminated in the party ousting Labour in the city council elections two years later.

Buoyed by their success in a region once considered a Labour heartland, the party hopes to capitalise on the retirement of sitting MPs Gerry Steinberg and John McWilliam to record a win in the region. A victory for either would lift Lib Dem representation in the region and capitalise on recent gains.

One significant blip on the New Labour radar came in the North East when the party narrowly managed to retain Hartlepool in last year’s by-election caused by Peter Mandelson’s elevation to the European Commission. Ian Wright, a Hartlepool city councillor, saw Labour’s majority in the constituency tumble from 14,571 to just 2,033 in the face of a strong Liberal Democrat challenge. The poll also revealed the depth of the Conservatives’ slough within the North East.

Although the statistics suggest that the forthcoming general election should produce no surprises in the region, recent events would suggest that anything is possible: as far as the Labour Party is concerned, voters in the North East can no longer be taken for granted.