A CARLISLE city councillor is setting his sites on higher office, after announcing his bid to be elected to the national body that helps steer the direction of the Labour Party.

Calvin Rodgerson, the council's youngest member at 22, this week launched his bid to be elected to Labour's National Executive Committee.

The campaign, which will run to the end of this year, will give Calvin the opportunity to speak out about why he feels his party has lost touch with cities such as Carlisle.

"I think places like Carlisle the places we've left behind over the last 10 years," Calvin said.

If elected to the committee, Calvin will be a part of the group responsible for helping guide the direction of the Labour Party's policies.

The committee also has a role to play in the party's disciplinary procedures, which is something Calvin is keen to make sure is reformed.

"One of the things I'm going to be pushing throughout this election is my pledge for an independent hate crime reporting system that is transparent and wholly independent from the Labour Party," he said.

"During the last election, one thing people were very upset with us over was antisemitism, and rightly so.

"We didn't deal with it well. We didn't even really comment on it."

Calvin said was confident the party was beginning to move in a better direction on the issue under its new leader, Kier Starmer.

He also welcomed early indications that the new leadership was more intent on listening to a broader range of voices within the party.

But Calvin stressed he wanted to make sure, if elected, the party paid attention to the interests of people in cities such as Carlisle, which he feels has wanted in recent years.

"I think I come from a position of experience, knowing from knocking on doors how we fell out of touch, and what we need to do in the future.

"In a way, I want to get back to our roots. Carlisle isn't a city that we should have lost, in the city elections or the national elections.

"I think it's easy for us to say it was all Jeremy Corbyn. In fairness, Jeremy Corbyn wasn't particularly well-received here on the doorstep in Carlisle.

"Some people did think we were becoming more bothered about issues that were not priorities to them.

I want us to really focus on what we've always been as a party - our desire to improve workers' rights, renters' rights, the education system.

"And I definitely think we had got it wrong on Brexit. From day one, I said we should uphold the referendum result, and push for a workers' friendly Brexit.

"To me, democracy had been done. We asked the question, we got the answer."