Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to support local news outlets after asserting that people trust them more than national titles.

The Labour leader has praised the “vital” local press while speaking to Your Harlow and Your Thurrock editor Michael Casey.

Michael interviewed them Sir Keir and his deputy Angela Rayner during a recent visit to Harlow.

He said was “heartened” by the Labour pair’s awareness of the independent local news sector.

Michael Casey, centre, flanked by Angela Rayner and Sir Keir Starmer

Sir Keir told Michael: “I think it is vital to support our local news outlets. Often people feel it is the local news that they can trust more than perhaps the national.

“This support must be given so local news can not only survive but thrive.”

Speaking to HTFP, Michael said: “I have always been heartened by Sir Keir Starmer’s interest in the independent sector and our role as a small and medium enterprise.

“We have spoken to him on the subjects of sustainability of the independent sector, statutory notices as well as public interest funding.

“In many ways, their eyes lit up when, after a queue of nationals, they get to seek to the ‘local guy’.

“So for example on an issue of the local hospital, they wanted to know if I used it. When I was able to tell then that my late mother was a staff nurse there in the sixties and I had four grandchildren born there, they spent more time questioning me.”

Michael has also discussed the state of local journalism in a separate visit to Harlow by Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.

He added: “He seemed very in tune with the needs of the independent sector, name-checking his local paper the Manchester Mill as an example of good practice.

“He also seemed aware of the need to encourage and perhaps fund the next generation of journalists.

“It is encouraging that the more MPs I meet, the more they seemed engaged with the local independent sector from The Shetlands to the Isle of Wight.

“I think we need to thank all the hyperlocal publishers as well as organisations such as Cardiff Centre of Journalism’s Independent Community News Network and the Public Interest News Foundation who are fighting the good fight for our sector.

“Only time will tell if a change of government will bring about benefits for the independent sector.”