Manufacturing job losses in the North-East are part of the "way of the world", the Prime Minister has declared - just hours after meeting workers sacked from LG Philips.
Tony Blair met employees of the Durham plant last month after it was announced the factory would close in July with the loss of 761 jobs.
He said it was not the job of governments to stop globalisation and warned it would be "wrong" for ministers to say they could, admitting: "I can't."
Mr Blair said the future for the industry was about "value added" services and using science, technology and high skills instead of relying on mass production.
However, responding to the recent job losses in the region, he said: "What government has to do today is not give people false promises that we can stop globalisation and that we can stop certain types of manufacturing becoming obsolete because we can't. It's the way it works."
