THE shadow chancellor of the exchequer paid a visit to Hereford to celebrate 100 years of the Labour party in the county.

John McDonnell was a guest of honour at the dinner at the Left Bank in Hereford and he provided the keynote speech on behalf of the national Labour party.

There were 100 members and supporters of Hereford and South Herefordshire Labour Party who celebrated the centenary of the foundation of Hereford Labour Party.

In November 1917 representatives of Hereford Trades Council and members of the Independent Labour Party met in the Wellington Hotel in Widemarsh Street to establish the county's Labour party.

John Evans, honorary secretary of the Hereford Trades Council, was elected president of the party and Sydney Box as secretary.

Political education officer, Roger Windsor, paid tribute to the founder members and the role of Mr Box as a trade unionist and socialist throughout his life.

He was the first Labour party parliamentary candidate in the 1918 general election .

Since 1917 Hereford Labour Party has contested 25 general elections and three former candidates were present at the centenary dinner: Josephine Kelly (1992), David Hallam (2001) and Anna Coda (2015 and 2017).

Mr McDonnell congratulated Hereford Labour Party on its centenary and passed on a congratulatory message from “a Shropshire Lad”, Jeremy Corbyn.

Ms Kelly was presented with a long service award by Mr McDonnell. She first joined Labour more than 50 years ago as a teenager living near Glasgow.

After moving to Hereford to teach sociology at the technical college she was active in her union NATFE as well as the Labour party.

She served as a district councillor on the former Hereford City Council between 1983 and 1995 and was mayor in 1990. She was the parliamentary candidate in the 1993 election and an agent for Ms Coda in 2015.

Mr Hallam, former Labour MEP for Herefordshire, called upon members to come forward as candidates so all Herefordshire Council seats could be contested by Labour in 2019.