Ellesmere Port and Neston’s Labour MP Justin Madders has said he will be proud to defend his record of working hard on local issues ahead of the snap General Election called on June 8.

He also slammed Prime Minister Theresa May for ‘putting her own interests ahead of what is best for the country’ by calling an early election.

Since being elected two years ago, Mr Madders is said to have made an impact as one of the country’s most active MPs in Parliament.

In terms of the number of debates he has spoken in, as well as the number of parliamentary questions asked, he ranks highly compared to others.

He has also responded to more than 11,000 constituent cases from every corner of his Ellesmere Port and Neston constituency.

Mr Madders said: “I am proud to defend my record of being a hard-working local MP, living in the constituency and always putting Ellesmere Port and Neston ahead of anything else.

“I am disappointed that Theresa May has put her own interests ahead of the interests of the country by calling another divisive election. I hope that local people will see through this for the political game playing that it is. Our schools and hospitals are struggling and we need a Labour Government to reverse that.

“Since being elected two years ago I have been out speaking with local people every single week, taking up the issues that matter to them. From standing up for Vauxhall, fighting for rail improvements in Neston or calling on the Government to deliver the investment that our road network and town centres need, I have always put my constituents first.

“On a whole host of local issues there is much I have been working on that is unfinished business. I hope that the people of Ellesmere Port and Neston will give me the opportunity to complete the job.”

Theresa May’s announcement of a snap June election came barely two years after Labour consolidated their power in Ellesmere Port.

Then borough councillor Justin Madders succeeded veteran Andrew Miller as the town’s Labour MP on a poor night nationally for the party giving activists the prospect of a bittersweet rollercoaster ride.

Taking over from Mr Miller, who had held the seat since 1992, Mr Madders may have imagined he would be travelling up to London with the prospect of joining a majority group of Labour MPs on the Government benches led by Mr Ed Miliband.

Instead he joined party supporters across the country who were questioning Labour’s future as it painfully rebuilt from a drastically altered political landscape.

Mr Madders believed ‘it has undoubtedly been a privilege for me to run for parliament in the constituency’ and said: “My job now is to repay the faith which people have shown in me. It is also to try and gain the confidence of the many people who feel disengaged, disaffected and disillusioned with politics.”

An employment lawyer, Mr Madders beat competition from six other candidates polling 22,316, increasing the Labour share of the vote by just over 3% compared with 2010 to just under 48% .

Previously Labour opposition leader on Cheshire West and Chester Council and leader of Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council, Mr Madders, married with three children, said at his selection he was honoured to have been chosen as Labour’s candidate.