Local paper launches campaign to stop MP launching more campaigns

It's being called the "campaign to end all campaigns".

The Croydon Advertiser is so fed up with Conservative MP Gavin Barwell launching campaigns in his Croydon Central constituency that it has launched a campaign to get him to take it down a notch.

The paper says Mr Barwell's recent drive to save a recycling centre is his fifth headline-grabbing crusade in a month.

In an editorial, it writes: "Gavin, we get it, there's an election on."

We're trying to make a point about politicians' propensity to act, or at least be seen to act, more forcefully when their future prospects are on the line.

• Glenn Ebrey, Croydon Advertiser editor

Mr Barwell has a majority of around 3,000 and this year Labour regained control of the council in local elections.

He said this was the first time a local paper had attacked an MP "for working too hard".

"It's a light-hearted piece, of course, but I'm working very, very hard. And, since the day I got elected, I go out every weekend campaigning," he added.

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