Conservative candidate Metcalfe won the seat for South Basildon and East Thurrock last Thursday (6 May) with 19,624 votes. His nearest rival was Labour candidate Angela Smith, who claimed 13,852 votes.

He said: "Politics has al­­ways been in my blood, just as ink has. However, the print industry is extraordinarily tough and there are a number of things that the next government can do to help it.

"These include not introducing a National Insurance hike and, in a more general sense, we also need less regulation and government interference so that printers can continue to deliver a good service to their customers."

Metcalfe has campaigned at every level of government from Parish Council to European Parliament for more than 20 years, and he also stood as the Conservative Party Parliamentary Candi­date in Ilford South in 2005.

Romford-based Metloc Printers is a £2m-turnover family business that was founded by Metcalfe's mother in 1967.

The commercial printer has 30 staff and produces business cards, stationery, leaflets and reports across its two sites.

Elsewhere, Terrye Tever­son, managing director at KCS Trade Print, narrowly lost out to the Tories as the Liberal Democrat candidate in the Truro and Falmouth.

She said government should make more funding available for SMEs trying to train staff in-house, as they have little support at present.