AS the election campaign heats-up another high profile Westminster politician came to Swindon today.

The Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Rachel Reeves visited Nationwide to speak with young apprentices.

Along with Anne Snelgrove, Labour’s candidate for South Swindon, the MP for Leeds West spoke for an hour with four colleagues, as well as taking a tour of Nationwide’s headquarters in Pipers Way.

She spoke of her admiration for the apprentices and said a Labour government would ensure there was an increase in the number available to young people.

“They are great ambassadors for apprenticeship who are working hard and committed to Nationwide,” she said.

“It’s great to see employers like Nationwide offering good quality apprenticeships with good training. I wish more companies would follow that lead.

“If we want to be able to compete internationally then we need to be training up all of our young people.

“We have said as many as young people should be doing apprenticeships as going to university. It is nothing like that today. Labour has said we will lead by example and all government contracts have to offer apprenticeships. We also want to make sure we encourage local authorities to do the same.”

Speaking after the event, Anne said: “This is an excellent scheme so I am delighted to hear Nationwide are going to be expanding their programme. We need a government which will encourage that across the country and especially the employers in Swindon to give our young people a chance.”

Nationwide has had a number of visits from politicians in recent months of all parties.

Alison Robb, group director of people, customer, communication and commercial, said: “We were delighted to discuss our apprenticeship scheme. Her visit is very welcome as it helps highlight the importance of apprentices and their roles within organisations such as ours.

"We’re very pleased to have increased our apprentice intake from 22 to 95 and we look forward to welcoming more enthusiastic people, who each bring a fresh perspective to the business, as part of the scheme this year.”