Dr Fiona Hill is a role model for north east women says Mayor of Bishop Auckland

North east-born US security adviser Dr Fiona Hill has been praised for her involvement in the impeachment proceedings against President Trump.

Dr Hill, the daughter of a coal miner from County Durham, has been giving evidence in the hearing against Donald Trump.

Mr Trump is facing impeachment over alleged impropriety in his foreign policy in dealing with Ukraine. He is alleged to have sought help from the Ukrainian government to boost his chances of re-election in 2020.

What is impeachment and how does it work?

The Mayor of Bishop Auckland, Councillor Joy Allen, said: "I cannot imagine what it must have been like for her, to go out and give evidence when the world was watching.

"She must have nerves of steel. She came across so well, so honest and so trustworthy.

During her evidence, Dr Hill explained how she became a US citizen by choice.

She said: "This country has afforded me opportunities I never would have had in England.

"I grew up poor, with a very distinctive working class accent.

"In England in the 1980s and 1990s, this would have impeded my professional advancement. This background has never set me back in America."

Dr Hill also confirmed a story about a boy setting fire to her pigtails during a school test when she was just 11. She said she calmly put the flames out and carried on with the exam.

In 2016, she told the Guardian newspaper about trying to win a place at Oxford University in the 1980s and compared it to a scene from the film Billy Elliot, in which a schoolboy from County Durham tries to win a place at the Royal Ballet School.

She said: "People were making fun of me for my accent and the way I was dressed.

"It was the most embarrassing, awful experience I have ever had in my life."

In 2017, Dr Hill's mother - who still lives in the north east - told The Times newspaper that her daughter had kept her regional accent and that could confuse people stateside.

She said: "It can confuse people, because they can't believe she is this important person in Washington."