BARROW'S new MP has addressed fears from her predecessor that a Labour government would put investment into projects in the town at risk.

Simon Fell said shortly after losing the seat he had held for five years that he was genuinely concerned the new government would not back investment started under the Conservatives and urged the new MP to be a 'strong champion'.

He said he was worried about the effect of a defence review on submarine building and questioned whether projects planned after receiving money from the Levelling Up Fund would still go ahead.

Mr Fell, who lost by around 5,000 votes to Labour's Michelle Scrogham, said: "They've said they're going to do a defence review in year one - that's a real risk to the submarine enterprise, mostly because of the delays it will create.

"And they are going to be looking for money wherever they can find it.

"I worry about some of the projects we've got from the Levelling Up Fund and I worry about Team Barrow and until that's nailed on and I find it written down somewhere.

"I hope Michelle can fight the corner for it because a place like Barrow really needs a strong champion."

Mrs Scrogham said plans had already been committed and criticised the Conservatives for scaling back previous projects in the area.

"We've said from the beginning anything that's been committed in the budget will continue for Labour," she said.

"So if it has gone into the budget that will be delivered.

"We've seen commitments from them in the past, they'll throw money and say 'we'll fix this' or 'we're going to sort out the A595' - we still haven't had a spade in the ground there, they've funded it three times and nothing's ever happened.

"The funds that we initially had before they came to power in 2010 to build the marina, all that funding was in place and that was scrapped when they came to power.

"We're now seeing a promise of housing so it's a watered-down version of what we had before."

The MP is among the new members taking their seats in parliament this week.