Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has promised his party will reverse the decline of manufacturing in Britain if it wins the General Election on a visit to Lancashire.

He was speaking at C&W Berry in Leyland on Friday afternoon.

Sir Keir highlighted Labour’s plans to create 650,000 jobs across the country through the Green Prosperity Plan.

The visit comes as new Labour analysis of official government statistics confirms 74,000 manufacturing jobs had been lost between now and the last general election in 2019.

This includes 4,000 in the North-West of England.

Labour’s manufacturing plans for the region include creating jobs upgrading homes for construction workers, plumbers, installers; delivering industrial decarbonisation in Merseyside; upgrade ports along the North-West coastline; funding electric vehicle battery plants in automotive heartlands through Labour’s £1.5 billion Battery Power fund; and building more than a thousand local power projects.

Sir Keir Starmer said: "The North-West has a proud manufacturing sector that creates good jobs for thousands of families, but after 14 years of Tory chaos and decline, there are fewer jobs in the manufacturing sector here than there were at the last general election.

“It’s time for change. Only a Labour government will reverse the decline in manufacturing – our plans will build more in Britain, for Britain and create thousands of good jobs in our industrial heartlands and coastal communities."