JONATHAN Creek star Alan Davies has helped launch Labour's campaign to hold the Hampstead and Kilburn parliamentary seat.

The actor and comedian cut the ribbon on candidate Tulip Siddiq's new campaign office in Kilburn High Road on Saturday afternoon.

A Labour supporter since his teens, Mr Davies, who lives in Hampstead, told a gathering of around 50 Labour supporters and volunteers: "This is a ridiculously tight seat, in a really important election. It's an old-fashioned election where social justice is at stake."

Labour has held a seat in Hampstead since Glenda Jackson's first election success in 1992. In a razor tight three-way contest at the last election, however, Ms Jackson scraped home with a majority slashed to just 42 votes. She has since announced her plans to retire, with the party passing the baton to Ms Siddiq, a former Camden councillor.

Also at Saturday's party were Dame Tessa Jowell and Sir Keir Starmer, the new parliamentary candidate in Holborn and St Pancras where another long-serving MP, Frank Dobson, is also stepping down at May's election. Mr Davies said: "Someone special was needed to fill Glenda Jackson's big shoes." He added that he backed Labour for supporting immigration and that he hoped voters would not be fooled by "opportunistic cuts" ordered by the Tory and Liberal Democrat coalition government.

Ms Siddiq said: "We only have 114 days left till the election. My aim is to continue the hundreds of conversations I am already having on the doorstep about fighting for the NHS, investing heavily in our education system, addressing the cost of living crisis and building more homes."