Markus Campbell-Savours, who is hoping to get elected as the next Labour MP, spoke to approaching 50 supporters in Penrith on Saturday (June 1).

Full statement

Technically it was the second campaign launch because he stood at the same spot in the town centre for what he described as a "soft launch" in February.

He also borrowed his father's trademark soapbox – Dale Campbell-Savours was the MP for Workington between 1979 and 2001 and now sits in the House of Lords and Mr Campbell-Savours is hoping to follow in his footsteps.

The Keswick Cumberland councillor said: “We got ourselves out on the streets because a good campaign starts very, very early.

"As soon as I was selected it was important for me that we got out on the streets and we started speaking to people.

“We started showing people that the Labour party has changed and that we are listening to them and we are not listening just to ourselves.

“So that is why we have been out, we have knocked on thousands of doors and we have been everywhere across Cumbria – from the north tip of Allerdale, up to the fells by Alston, but we’ve still got an awful lot of ground to cover but we are so keen to speak to people.

“It’s been so interesting speaking to people who probably, traditionally, wouldn’t have voted Labour but actually this time they have got a really tough decision to make.”

Mr Campbell-Savours said he was standing because he wanted to see a better Cumbria and added: "This is where I am from and these are the communities I have grown up around and I just know they could be so much better under a Labour government.”

He said the response on the doorstep has so far been positive and added: “It has been fantastic, it’s an odd one this, I don’t think I’ve had an election where the response on the doorstep has been this positive.

"I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I think it’s genuinely because people don’t know what they are doing with that vote and they are falling away from their tribal ways.

“So, to have Conservatives who I think in the past would have very quickly shut their door and very politely told me that weren’t interested, now they are talking and that’s nice because I think it’s getting people an opportunity to see that in many ways their values are our values and there’s nothing to worry about when you panic about Labour.”