A top Conservative politician has visited Copeland to talk about proposals for a new Whitehaven relief road.

Chris Grayling, who has been the Secretary of State for Transport since 2016, met parliamentary candidate Trudy Harrison to discuss the A595 and plans for a new relief road for the outskirts of Whitehaven.

Mr Grayling said: "Trudy has been biting my ankles for the last six weeks since she was first elected about the A595.

"I have been back here once to commit to a number of smaller projects. But today, we are saying we will move to the next stage of development of a relief road for Whitehaven as part of what I think needs to be an ongoing rolling programme of improvements to the A595.

"This is an important route in this constituency."

He said he has told Highways England to look at the next stage of development for the relief road.

Highways England will come up with cost estimates.

He said: "They are now starting to do the work to look at what the best options are.

"We don't want to change the character of the area but we do want better connections."

Mrs Harrison said: "Transport was part of my campaign last time around. When you live in the area you see the problems on a daily basis.

"Our A595 desperately needs investment and I'm relieved to hear that Chris' commitment towards the early stages of development towards the Whitehaven relief road will be going ahead."

Mr Grayling and Mrs Harrison were set to visit Beckermet this afternoon to speak to mayor of Copeland Mike Starkie before travelling to Barrow.