I used to live in the North East of England janeainsworth and I know it very well. I worked in one of these fine universities, teaching brilliant students, many of whom were local, and I would never for a moment suggest that folk in the NE are responsible for brexit.
However, there is no doubt that parts of the NE, and other areas like South Wales, have never recovered from the loss of the heavy industries which have gone since the Thatcher era.
There has not been adequate investment in replacing them with alternative employment and training and in the areas of post-industrial dereliction there are people who quite rightly felt "left behind". These folk were preyed upon by the right-wing tabloids and the liars of the Leave campaign who somehow persuaded them that their deprivation was the fault of the EU and not of successive UK governments.
Let us just hope that enough of these folk are now waking up to the fact they were conned and any kind of brexit, but particularly a "no-deal" brexit will leave them even worse off.
When the "deal" and its consequenses are spelled out, these folk, and the rest of us should be able to decide whether that is what we want, or whether we should admit that we are better remaining in the EU.