A regional daily has joined a new campaign aimed at getting more readers on its patch to vote.

The Birmingham Mail has launched its Parliament Matters campaign after being approached by the legislative body’s outreach and engagement team over a drive to get more people involved in the democratic process.

Birmingham’s constituencies had some of the lowest turn outs in the 2015 General Election – in Ladywood just 52.7pc voted, the fifth lowest in the country, in Erdington just 53.3pc and in Hodge Hill 54.5pc.

As part of the campaign, a replica green bench from the House of Commons will be available at Birmingham New Street railway station next Thursday for passers-by to meet team members, raise the issues they want to talk about and have a photograph.

Mail editor Marc Reeves said: “The Houses of Parliament got in touch to ask us to partner with them on this campaign to get more Brummies engaged in voting and the whole democratic process.

“Voter turnout has been a bit of an issue over many years in the city, so we jumped at the chance to get involved.

“We’ll be supporting the drive with interviews with key parliamentary figures and live coverage of the campaigns’s events throughout the week.”