Corrie's Vera campaigns for Labour

Former Coronation Street actress Liz Dawn has been campaigning for the Labour party in a Crewe and Nantwich by-election.

Dawn, who played Vera Duckworth in the ITV soap for more than 30 years, turned up at a garden party with candidate Tamsin Dunwoody at the home of a Corrie fan in Coronation Street, Crewe.

Liz said that Vera and TV husband Jack Duckworth (Bill Tarmey) would be thrilled by Labour's recently-announced 10p tax concessions.

"Jack and Vera would be thrilled," said Dawn. "It was a bad choice really, wasn't it? But it has been altered now and it's been put right. People forget what it was like under a Conservative government."

Dunwoody, whose mother's death caused the by-election, said she was delighted to get support from the ex-soap star.

She said: "It is fantastic. Everywhere we go people come out and ask for autographs. People have grown up with her and having her here, as a strong Labour supporter, is a privilege for me."