The man who could become the United Kingdom's next Prime Minister has made an unannounced visit to Cumbria.

Staff and customers at the Off The Wall coffee shop, in Brampton, were surprised to see Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson walk through the door yesterday morning.

The Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip - who many people believe will succeed Theresa May in 10 Downing Street - stopped for a drink and a chat.

He said that he was visiting the area while travelling along part of Hadrian's Wall and happily posed for photographs.

"He said he was here because he was doing a bit of the wall," Linda Smith, who works at Off The Wall, told the News & Star. "He said he was cycling along it. I think he's just here for a break.

"He had two coffees and two cans of pop. Quite a few people that were in went over to him and he seemed happy to chat to them and he shook a few hands as well.

"He was chatty to us, that's how we found out why he's here. He seemed nice enough."

Linda said that staff, though, were not completely taken aback by Mr Johnson's visit. "We do get quite a few people in when they're out and about visiting," she added.

"So it wasn't a complete surprise."

Mr Johnson's visit to Cumbria comes just days after Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry visited Carlisle Airport - which trades as Carlisle Lake District Airport - to announce a £5m investment that could bring passenger flights to the county.

However, Mr Johnson upset many people in Carlisle following a visit to the city in 2005 while MP for Henley-on-Thames. He documented his visit in an article for The Daily Telegraph.

He stated that he went into a pub for a drink whereby he was confronted before making his way down Botchergate.

"Mr Johnson wrote: "Faces leered and weaved towards me, pale and waxy with drink, and everyone seemed to be hurling strange oaths and invitations, and, since I could find nowhere to sit and read my book, I fled to the railway station and sat shivering on the platform until the night train arrived."