On one of the biggest days of industrial action in living memory, Northumberland Labour says strikes should not have been necessary and are the last resort.

Leader Scott Dickinson said: “It’s tragic that many ordinary people have had to resort to striking to get their point across to this government.

“Workers have had 13 years of their standard of living being cut. Working people are depending on food banks and have to hold down two or three jobs to make ends meet. Surely the government could not expect people to take it lying down after years of being undervalued for the vital work they do.

“We should never again have the situation where the people who provide the real wealth in this country – working people –  are ignored.

“The government says it can’t afford higher wages. We’d say the government can not afford to keep wages down, stripping away people’s standards of living and creating huge numbers of vacancies in our public services as people go elsewhere for work.

“The way we see this is simple; pay people more, they spend more, that means better standards of living which in turn creates more jobs because people have more disposable income.

“For 13 years we’ve had a government which deliberately strips the dignity from the people they’re supposed to be serving.

“Things have got to change.”