A HUNG parliament would be a danger for Cumbria according to the former leader of the Conservative party William Hague.

During a visit to The Westmorland Gazette offices with the Conservative candidate for Westmorland and Lonsdale Gareth McKeever, Mr Hague urged local people to vote Tory if they wanted to avoid a hung parliament.

He said: “I think it would lead to a lot of bickering and haggling in Parliament and I think it would create a lot of difficulties in Cumbria.

“I’ve just been to Barrow and imagine in a hung parliament trying to get an agreement for going ahead with the Trident submarines or renewing our nuclear power generation.”

He also pledged to support small business in the region which he believes have been ignored under Labour.

Mr Hague said: “We’re the only party in this election who have a policy for small businesses.

"With us If you set up a new small business and then you pay no employers national insurance contributions on your first ten employees for two years which that means its easier for new businesses to take on more employees and indeed to pay them more.”

He added that affordable housing was an enormous challenge in rural picturesque areas such as Cumbria but the Conservatives would work with local housing trusts and local people to have more say over new housing developments.