Boris Johnson pledges to "unite our incredible United Kingdom" on visit to Tony Blair's former seat

Boris Johns was in the North east of England today

The Tories made shock gains in many traditional Labour heartland areas in the North east of England, including Blair's ex seat. Mr Johnson told his newly elected MPs in the region they were now the "servants of the people."

In a pledge that his Government will seek to to shift its economic focus away from London and the South East, Mr Johnson also pledged to "unite and level up" opportunity across the UK.

He said: "All the people of Sedgefield, of Bishop Auckland, of Stockton South, Darlington - where my ancestors come from it turns out - North West Durham, Blyth Valley and Redcar.

"I want to thank all of you for the trust you have placed in us in the Conservative party and in me. I know how difficult it was and it can be to make that kind of decision.

"I know that people may have been breaking the voting habits of a generation to vote for us and I want the people of the North East to know that we in the Conservative party and I will repay your trust. Everything that we do, everything that I do as your Prime Minister will be devoted to repaying that trust."

The Government has been "going over the timetable" to make sure his Brexit bill can be passed before to sure the UK is scheduled to leaves the EU in seven weeks.

"We we can definitely get in in before Christmas and then we'd be out on January 31st," he added.

Johnson said his Government would make the biggest investment in the NHS in a generation with new hospitals and more nurses, along with investment to provide 20,000 more police officers south of the border.

"What we want to do as Conservatives, we want to take our country forward and we will do it by uniting and levelling up across the whole of our incredible United Kingdom," he told supporters.

"And we do it with a very simple idea, better idea - by investing in better infrastructure, better education and fantastic modern technology.

"And give those things to every part of the United Kingdom and we will spread opportunity across the whole of the United Kingdom. That is fundamentally what we in the Conservative party believe in.

"We believe in giving opportunity to everyone. We believe that talent is evenly distributed throughout our country but opportunity is unfairly distributed and we are going to rectify that as a one Nation Conservative Government, as the peoples' Government.

"That's what we are going to do."

He thanked his newly elected Tory MPs in the North East who flanked at the event.

"You're all going to come down with me to Westminster on Monday," he said.

" Our country is now embarked on a wonderful adventure and we're going to recover our national self confidence our mojo. We're going to do things differently and better as a country."

He added: "Our country will stand tall in the world."

"But I want to say to all of my colleagues as MPs when we get down to Westminster and begin our work, remember we are not the masters - we are the servants now. We are the servants now and our job is to serve the people of this country and to deliver on our priorities."