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Shameless Theresa May launched a bid to woo lifelong Labour voters - at a community centre the Tories tried to close down.

The Prime Minister swooped into Linskill Centre in North Shields today, 13 years after the local Conservative Mayor attempted to shut it.

In a major speech - which despite the topic was to Tory supporters - she declared people who voted Labour for generations were being "abandoned" by Jeremy Corbyn and should switch allegiance.

Her arrival was watched by protesters declaring "she's lying to you" and the Mirror Chicken, who's pursuing the Tory leader across Britain calling on her to take part in a TV debate with Jeremy Corbyn .

Labour's Alan Campbell, who is defending a 8,240 majority, said: "Just over a decade ago the Tory Mayor tried her best to close the centre, throwing out vulnerable community groups and taking away a valuable community asset.

“The centre was only saved by a massive community campaign supported by the Labour Party ."

Thirteen years ago the vital facility, a converted school, looked doomed as it was earmarked for demolition.

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(Image: MDM) (Image: © North News & Pictures ltd) (Image: AFP)

Dedicated campaigners launched a spirited fight to save the local lifeline from the bulldozers.

A 5,573 strong petition was handed to the council urging Tory Mayor Linda Arkley to reconsider the decision to knock-down the crumbling building.

Eventually it was saved but residents are still bitter at the Tory bid to axe the centre.

Mr Campbell, who was first elected Tynemouth MP in Labour's Tony Blair -led landslide in 1997, said: “I am surprised at the choice of venue.

“What this does is remind people how destructive Tory policies have been in our area and shows why people need to vote Labour on June 8.”

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(Image: Getty Images Europe) (Image: Getty Images Europe)

The choice of venue suggests the arrogant PM is so confident of a Tory landslide that she will shrug off local memories of the Tory bid to scrap the centre as she launched her latest land grab on traditional Labour strongholds.

Hitting the campaign trail at the halfway mark of the general election battle, the Tory leader was due to say Jeremy Corbyn has “deserted proud and patriotic working class people” and “abandoned” Labour's grassroots supporters.

She brazenly claimed Labour "cannot be trusted" to run the country.

And she even promised a "brighter future" for the north east when told it had been hit hardest by seven years of Tory austerity.

She was due to say: "Millions of people here in the north east of England, and across our country, have loyally given the Labour Party their allegiance for generations. I respect that.

“We respect that parents and grandparents taught their children and grandchildren that Labour was a party that shared their values and stood up for their community.

“But across the country today, traditional Labour supporters are increasingly looking at what Jeremy Corbyn believes in and are appalled."

During her speech Mrs May tore into Labour's leaked draft election manifesto, branding it a "multibillion-pound ideological wish list" with a shortfall that could reach £30billion.

“That’s not an economic plan - that’s an economic shambles," she declared.

And mocking a disastrous interview in which the Shadow Home Secretary muddled police numbers, she said: "He says he wants to change Britain - and that's true. But what we have learned in this campaign is that he wants to change it into the 1970s.

"In just three weeks Labour have taken us back 40 years - or maybe 400 years according to Diane Abbott."

She added: “Across the country, Labour candidates are disowning their leader... If he cannot effectively lead his party during this election he cannot possibly be ready to lead our country through Brexit in just 27 days’ time.”

Earlier Mrs May launched the party's 2017 election battle bus - which party aides dubbed the "campaign coach".

(Image: PA) (Image: AFP) (Image: AFP)

It was emblazoned with her name in huge lettering with only a small mention of the Conservative Party, continuing her presidential-style campign.

The Prime Minister joked that she had used every type of transport except horses recently as she boarded the coach at Eshott Airfield in Felton, Northumberland.

The bus was unveiled just two days after the saga of the Tories' 2015 battle bus was largely brought to a close.

No charges will be brought after the touring bus was declared as a national expense under strict spending limits, despite visiting local candidates.

CPS head of special crime Nick Vamos said there was evidence [spending] returns "may have been inaccurate" but not enough to show candidates or agents were criminally dishonest.

Mrs May insisted: "Candidates did nothing wrong".

Earlier Labour blasted Mrs May's bid to woo loyal voters in the north of England.

National Campaign Chair Ian Lavery said: "This is nonsense. The wonderful people of the North East of England won’t be fooled by this farcical attempt by Theresa May to mask the damage her Tories have done to the lives of working people across the country.

"Under the Tories working families are set to be an average of £1,400 a year worse off, real wages are lower now than they were in 2010 and nearly six million people are paid less than the living wage.

"All this while the few at the top have been given tax breaks worth tens of billions of pounds."