Regional news exposés on police taser attacks and councillors parking illegally have secured nominations for a national investigative journalism award.

Carlisle News & Star chief reporter Phil Coleman and Liverpool Echo political editor Liam Thorp have both been longlisted for the Private Eye Paul Foot Award.

Phil has been nominated after exclusively obtaining police bodycam footage that revealed how officers had attacked and tasered a Cumbrian man in the midst of a mental health crisis, contradicting the police account of the incident.

Liam is longlisted for the award for his investigation which exposed how local politicians in Liverpool used an informal system to get a free ride for illegal parking.

How the Echo covered the issue on its front page

The series of splashes resulted in resignations from Liverpool City Council.

In the contest, they face competition from journalists working for The Guardian, the i, The Times, Vice World News, Bloomberg and the New York Times.

The winner will be awarded £5,000 at a ceremony on 6 June and a shortlist will be published prior to that.

Previous winners from the regional press include Deborah Wain, of the Doncaster Free Press, in 2007, and Emma Youle, of Archant’s investigations unit, in 2017.