Former Tory Leader Iain Duncan Smith has told student journalists: "If you really want to get a message across to somebody you want to go to a local [paper]".

Speaking at noSWeat journalism training in Clerkenwell, London, he told his audience: "The local media has definitely now become much stronger.

"People trust it more. They don’t trust the national news. They believe a lot more in local papers. That is really the forum for serious news."

Trainee journalists quizzed the politician, who was one of a series of high-profile invited guests to the centre.

The MP told staff and students that the media was "enormously powerful".

He believed that there were some "no-go" areas for reporters but added: "It is all about selling papers. A story does not go in these days unless it is a crisis."