A campaign by a weekly newspaper to support local shops has been praised by the town’s MP in an Early Day Motion.

Morecambe’s The Visitor launched its Support Our Shops campaign in September to boost its town centre by urging readers to use local independent shops.

Morecambe MP David Morris has backed the initiative and put forward an EDM praising the paper, which has so far been signed by six MPs.

The paper’s campaign also aims to highlight success stories of independent shopkeepers in the town.

The EDM says: “This House notes that The Visitor newspaper is embarking on a campaign to Support Our Shops (SOS Morecambe); further notes that the SOS Morecambe campaign seeks to encourage those living in Morecambe to visit local shops and discover the wide variety of local businesses that are available in Morecambe; further notes that the campaign encourages the opening of new businesses in Morecambe; commends The Visitor for this campaign; and requests the whole community to join it in rejuvenating the town of Morecambe.”

Chief reporter Greg Lambert, who has led the campaign, said it was launched after Morecambe came top of a league for the number of empty shops last year.

The town was also named as a pilot town by retail guru Mary Portas earlier this year, with £100,000 awarded for improvements to a main shopping street.

He said: “We thought it was a good time to launch the campaign to shout about some of the really good businesses in Morecambe.

“There has been a massive amount of support for it. We have got SOS logos which shopkeepers are displaying and have run a lot of human interest stories from local shopkeepers.”