‘An Evening with Alastair Campbell’, hosted by local MP Phil Wilson and compered by Northern Echo’s Chris Lloyd, raised £150 for the MRI appeal which has been led by the Newton News editor Syd Howarth.
The money raised in the raffle will be used to help with the running costs of recently installed MRI Scanners in the Darlington Memorial and Bishop Auckland hospitals.
The evening itself was well attended, with Newtonians and people from as far as Redcar and Newcastle including MP Anna Turley and Cat McKinnell in the audience.
Alastair Campbell spoke on Brexit, an issue he doesn’t shy away from giving his opinion; winning three general elections whilst working for Tony Blair; and football briefly mentioning the World Cup and his own team Burnley. He then took questions from the audience, which ranged from the important role of politicians at local government level, the options the UK have with regard to staying in the single market, to what the future has in store for the Labour Party.
Commenting on the event, MP Phil Wilson said ‘It was a fantastic evening with great debate. I’d like to thank Alastair for coming along and speaking, and to those in attendance who helped raise money for the MRI fund.’
