What does the referendum result mean for our politics?

ITV's Political Correspondent Paul Brand at the Sunderland count Credit: ITV

The North East didn't just reject the EU last night, it rejected the Labour Party too.

We always thought Sunderland would come out for Leave. But I watched last night as Labour MPs paced the counting floor nervously - they sensed something disturbing.

And when the ballot papers began to pile high for Leave, it was obvious there'd been a seismic shift away from Remain.

The Leave ballots were piled so high I called the result before they declared - 60 to 40 for Leave. In fact, the gap was even bigger.

The reaction was immediate. Cheers from the Leave camp, but also a knife plunged into Labour.

Richard Elvin, who has run several times as a UKIP candidate in our region, was quick to tell me Labour had lost touch with its core vote. Sunderland has three Labour MPs - but even that hefty trio couldn't persuade the city to remain.

Then came the avalanche of other Leave results from across our region - huge in Hartlepool, as expected, but Gateshead and Tyneside were crushing for Remain too. In the end, 11 out of 12 North East council areas opted to leave.

On the face of it, the result is a puzzle. The two big themes of this campaign have been immigration and the economy. In terms of the former, the North East has the lowest rate of immigration of anywhere in the UK. And in terms of the economy, nowhere in Britain has stronger European exports than our region, with Nissan and Hitachi both clearly stating their preference to remain.

But there's something bigger going on here than the day-to-day arguments and rhetoric. On the campaign trail you felt a deep sense of resentment in the North East - I'd call it a protest vote, but that's too whimsical. After years of relative deprivation and high unemployment, the North East is angry at its masters in Westminster and Brussels too. Last night it said, 'No more'.

As one Labour MP suggested to me, the feeling amongst voters is that things can't get any worse in the North East, so they decided to roll the dice. But in doing so, they haven't just rejected the EU, they've rejected the advice of their beloved party - Labour.

UKIP has already been snatching votes here, slowly building support over recent elections. Labour now finds itself on the wrong side of its core vote, and they may not be forgiven.

Once a one-party state, suddenly politics in the North East looks like its on the move. Yesterday a seismic shift was felt in our region and the cracks may be about to open up.