Labour Leader Keir Starmer visits AFC Rushden & Diamonds in lead-up to this week's Wellingborough by-election

Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour party leader, visited the Hayden Road football ground in Rushden today (February 13) alongside prospective candidate Gen Kitchen to drum up support for the ‘really important’ by-election on Thursday (February 15).

Predictably, he’s thrown his weight behind Gen’s campaign in Wellingborough as she attempts to take the seat of disgraced former Tory MP Peter Bone.

Concerns raised when the Northants Telegraph took to the streets in Wellingborough and Rushden were put to Starmer, who offered his perspective.

On town centre regeneration, he said: “I think it hugely matters because people have great pride in their High Streets, and therefore want to see it thriving.

"The context here is that you’ve had a Conservative MP and a Conservative council, and yet most people don’t feel they’re in a better place now than they were when this government started.

“In order to bring about that change we need to deal with the cost of living crisis. Local businesses, particularly in hospitality, are telling me that their big concern is the first thing people cut out if they haven’t got enough money is going for a meal or going for a drink.

“Once that happens, you get even more of those vacancies so we need to turn that around with a plan for the High Street.”

On anti-social behaviour and knife crime, he said: “It blights too many lives.

“Anti-social behaviour matters. Many people say it’s ‘low-level’, I do not think that it’s ‘low-level’. It affects lives, and therefore what we need is a strategy to deal with it.

“We want to be very clear that if you carry a knife, you carry the consequences.”

The leader of the opposition – and member of parliament for Holborn and St Pancras – visited the home of AFC Rushden & Diamonds and spoke to staff, volunteers, and local people about the issues that matter to them.

During the three-hour visit, Starmer, who expressed his love of football, highlighted the impact local sport can have on social cohesion, and how it can be ‘a real sense of place and pride in place.’

He said: “It’s not just the 90 minutes of the match on Saturday, or whatever other sport it may be, it’s everything that sits behind that.

“It’s the young people who are brought through in training, it's the sense of community.

“This stadium doesn’t just represent a sports ground, it’s a business, it’s where people come together.”

On Gen Kitchen, Starmer praised her ‘ability to connect with people and with businesses, and to understand their concerns.’

He added: “It’s an opportunity, I hope, to turn a page on the decline and the sense that things aren’t really happening as they should, and usher in an MP that will be a very powerful advocate for their constituency.

"Here at AFC Rushden & Diamonds there are some businesses that are here every match day on the corner selling food, and they were telling me Gen was not only at the match, but she then spoke to them at half-time as they went through the concerns they had and what they wanted to see change.

"That’s what I mean by a powerful advocate, which is somebody who takes the time to understand their consitituents, and knows what’s needed to bring about change.”

The Labour party’s rallying around Gen’s bid has seen shadow ministers frequently visit the area over the past few weeks, including shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves. While ‘decisive action’ was taken to pull the party’s support for Rochdale candidate Azhar Ali today following comments made about Israel, the efforts in Wellingborough continue uninterrupted.

Polling stations in the constituency open at 7am for the Wellingborough by-election on February 15.

Here’s everything you need to know.