JEREMY CORBYN and Laura Pidcock urged Labour supporters on Saturday to “keep your eyes on the prize” of a general election victory.

Speaking at the Durham Miners’ Gala, the Labour leader and North West Durham MP Ms Pidcock both spoke of the need to be on a general election footing while resisting media attacks.

After dedicating her speech to her father Bernard, a Labour stalwart in Durham, Ms Pidcock joked that she “will have to go into retirement after this because nothing’s going to beat speaking at the Big Meeting.”

Addressing the climate crisis and inequality in Britain, she said: “The capitalist system is at the root of this destruction and it is the capitalist system that must be looked squarely in the eye and taken on, because there is no other way.”

Ms Pidcock said that the next Labour government “will oversee the biggest transfer of power from employees to employers ever seen in this country,” warning “exploiting bosses” they are “on borrowed time.”

She told Labour members: “When history is written, people will look back in awe that you did not shrink back from the fire.

“Take your anger, take your pain and your frustration and take your deep dissatisfaction with this system and occupy every space with your politics without embarrassment without hesitation and without fear.

“When we feel that mountain is too high, remember your comrades.

“They say it’s the darkest just before the dawn — dawn is on it’s way. We have everything to win.”

Beginning his speech, Mr Corbyn paid tribute to the late comedian Jeremy Hardy, who he first met during the miners’ strike of 1984-85 and filmmaker Simon Baker, who died unexpectedly earlier this month.

He lashed out at “grotesque levels” of regional inequality in Britain, promising that the next Labour government will greatly expand green industries and create thousands of jobs across the north-east England.

He said: “It won’t be for the enrichment of those who don’t deserve to be any more enriched, it will be high-skilled, well-paid, unionised jobs that people will be proud to have.”

Mr Corbyn urged members of Labour to “not allow our movement to be divided.

“Do not allow our message to be distracted.

“Keep your eyes on the prize of getting rid of this government and getting a Labour government dedicated to the redistribution of power and wealth in our society.”