North Shropshire's MP has been appointed to a new role as her party's spokesman for levelling up – and promised to use the role to put rural areas in the sportlight.

Helen Morgan MP is the new Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

She said her experiences over her first seven months in office looking at infrastructure and healthcare to be have left her "desperate" to upgrade public transport, healthcare and internet connections.

Helen Morgan said: "For too long rural areas like north Shropshire have been ignored when it comes to Levelling Up and it’s time for that to change.

"I’m very excited to have the opportunity to bang the drum for my home area and bring the issues facing us here onto the national agenda."

The MP also criticised the Conservative party, saying the failure of Oswestry's levelling up funding bid demonstrated "how little they care for levelling up rural areas".

She added that rural areas like Wem, Whitchurch and Market Drayton need to benefit from the same level of infrastructure, as urban areas.

She said: "From broadband to bus connections and town centre investment, it’s time Levelling Up started applying to north Shropshire and the rest of rural UK."