DURHAM Miners’ Association (DMA) leader Alan Mardghum is glad to see the back of Keir Starmer. But he issues a sharp warning to Labour that there’s a long way to go if it’s to win back working-class trust.

The Big Meeting is the biggest celebration of working-class culture and tradition in Europe: each year roughly 200,000 people throng the streets of the northern city to listen to the pit bands, admire the banners and hear the speeches from labour movement leaders.

Its vibrancy over three decades since the last pit in the Durham coalfield closed is testament to the resilience and pride of the former mining communities, but any assumption this translates to support for Labour has long evaporated.

“As I said from the platform at the Miners’ Gala when Labour came to power, if they didn’t produce the goods for working-class people there was a shadowy figure lurking in the background, waiting to take power.

“Since then we’ve seen Reform take the council in Durham. In Sunderland. In South Tyneside. In Gateshead. Sweeping the board in traditional Labour areas.

“It’s all you hear if you go into a pub or a club round here — Reform, Reform, Reform.

“They’re not the answer. Nigel Farage is being found out in a massive way — exposed for what he is, a snake oil salesman.” We spoke just before the Reform UK leader announced his by-election stunt in Clacton to distract attention from the lavish gifts and donations he’s received from unsavoury sources.

“But people just feel betrayed by the mainstream parties, and Reform are still a threat — one the government will need to address head on.

“Not by repeating the same type of rhetoric Starmer did, us being an island of strangers and all that.

“But by focusing on winning people back. In the north-east, that has to start with the cost of living. People are really suffering.

“It has to mean looking at services, transport links. Social housing, the NHS. People need to see material change in their areas. There’s no point in trying to out-Reform Reform on small boats, as if people in Sunderland are affected by refugees on boats in the English Channel — they’re really not.”

Mardghum is worried by reports that Andy Burnham is appointing advisers from the same clique that dominated the party under Starmer.

“My advice to Burnham or whoever else might be the next prime minister is — carry on with the same old-same old you’ll get a drubbing at the next general election.”

A programme to fix Britain’s housing crisis, particularly given increasingly urgent adaptations needed to cope with climate change, rebuild public services hollowed out by privatisation and modernise the transport system would cost a lot.

“Well, people must be taxed. They need to put a wealth tax on the very richest — there’s billions of pounds there to finance lasting projects. The idea that there isn’t any money is a lie, there’s plenty of money, it’s just locked up in Swiss bank accounts. Unlock it.

“And follow the lead of the 1945 Labour government. There wasn’t any money in 1945, the country was bankrupt, it was still paying for the second world war and even the first world war, but it introduced the National Health Service, nationalisation of key industries, social housing programmes — let’s get back to basics.”

Mardghum has noticed that the “no money” argument hasn’t been applied to military spending, which is set to rise by tens of billions of pounds a year.

“Of course we need to be able to defend the country, but this rhetoric — that Russia might invade us in the next four years — is absolutely ridiculous.

“We need to spend some money on defence, our armed forces need to be adequately supplied, but I’m for welfare not warfare — are we going to cut basics, cut benefits, pensions, support for the most vulnerable to pay for military spending, that just fills the pockets of the arms dealers who are making billions? It’s not about defending ourselves, it’s about making them money.”

Is there a chance that Burnham, having come from devolved government in Manchester, will have a better understanding of the need for regional investment than a party long led by Londoners?

After all — though it is not widely acknowledged in a London-centric media — one reason Starmer was so loathed was his contempt for local opinion, his imposition of candidates picked by party centre on communities they knew nothing about and his high-handed purges of popular local ones. Mardghum himself resigned from Labour after receiving a letter saying he would be investigated for having shared a platform with the former North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll, one of those purged.

Burnham has hinted he will do things differently, even pitching a “No 10 North” office based in Manchester. Mardghum wants to see more detail, though: “What does he mean by the north? The north doesn’t stop at Manchester.

“Government needs to look to the regions, hear from the regions and devolve power from Westminster — north, south, east and west should all be represented. Liaise with people in constituencies. Maybe even have party conferences where members are represented and policy is decided!”

That ties to party democracy and Starmer’s purges. Mardghum, a Labour member for 40 years, says it no longer resembles the party he joined at all. Burnham could show he is turning a new leaf by opening his arms to those driven out by Starmer.

“It should — it always used to be a broad church, a party with socialists in it though never a socialist party as they said. It needs to [be more open to diverse views] to reconnect with local communities. If you have someone in London like Morgan McSweeney telling us what’s good for us in Sunderland it won’t work.”

A slogan emblazoned on Gala publicity is We’re Still Here, and for Mardghum the Gala remains an assertion that true “labour” values, working-class values of solidarity, comradeship and peace, still exist even if they aren’t represented at Westminster.

The DMA leader is sceptical about Labour, but emphatic that the Gala will never provide a platform for Reform on his watch. “Their policies are absolutely abhorrent.

“I’m not attacking individual voters, I understand why people are desperate for an alternative, but Reform are not the answer and the Gala is not theirs. We have always fought fascism and racist ideology, we did so back in the 1930s.

“We support oppressed people around the world and won’t stomach the hatred Reform spreads about minorities.”

It’s a message that will resound through Durham today, on the lodge banners paraded in the streets and blessed in the cathedral, in the platform speeches and the music of the bands.

But maintaining this celebration of our class and our culture is ever more expensive, and the DMA hasn’t had contributions from members in work since the last pit closed in 1993.

“Help us to keep it going — join the Marras,” he stresses, referring to the Friends of the Durham Miners’ Gala. “We are in a serious financial situation, and there is a real danger of us no longer being able to afford to put the Gala on.

“We need to redouble our efforts not to disappear. If you’re not a Marra, join; if you can afford to make a donation towards the Gala, do. Dig as deep as you can.”

Visit friendsofdurhamminersgala.org/marras to join.