WHILE the candidates have been pounding the streets getting their message across to the North Shropshire public, one climate change action group in the West Midlands has been taking a keen interest in what they drive.

Climate looms behind many of the issues in the by-election – farmers' livelihoods, energy costs, improving transport connectivity, housebuilding, attracting new jobs.

The West Midlands Climate Storytelling Exchange asked the leading candidates what car they drive and their views on climate and the environment – some of their positions may come as a surprise.

Neil Shastri-Hurst, Conservative Party

Wags might suggest Conservative candidate Neil Shastri-Hurst's chosen vehicle is a submarine, so reluctant has he been to engage with some media enquiries. He drove away from a hustings last week in a Skoda SUV.

He told the climate hustings in Oswestry that as the father of a baby boy born just eight weeks ago, climate change "is an issue that I'm personally vested in" and that "it's clear that the issue resonates strongly here".

At the start of the event he paid tribute - "slightly unusually," as he said, to Green Party candidate Cllr Duncan Kerr for advancing environmental policies as a member of Oswestry town council's ruling group–- a gesture repaid by Cllr Kerr telling a hustings the next day that climate was the issue the Conservative government had failed most abysmally on.

Shastri-Hurst's enthusiasm for the "Conservative government's record protecting the planet and building back greener," climate targets and wind power is a world away from North Shropshire's previous MP, former Coalition Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, who argued the Climate Change Act should be scrapped in 2014.

Helen Morgan, Liberal Democrats

Lib Dem candidate Helen Morgan drives a 2017 Mini, and says she plans to go electric next time she changes her car.

She is a half-marathon runner and as a Myddle, Broughton and Harmer Hill parish councillor, has fought to improve safety on country roads. She wants the buses she's calling for Shropshire County Council to introduce to be electric.

Criticised at one hustings for the lack of explicit reference to climate issues in her campaign literature, she said she hoped her campaign reflected how farmers are "key allies" in the fight against climate change.

"[They] have the highest animal welfare and environmental standards in the world, and at the moment the Conservatives are undermining them by signing trade deals which don't have climate commitments in them, and allow sub-standard produce to be brought into this country," she said.

On the carbon emissions impact of large numbers of Lib Dem activists travelling from around the UK to campaign for her, she says: "While the Liberal Democrats are not off-setting the carbon emissions of activist travel, almost everybody leaving HQ is car-sharing and most people are arriving having used trains".

On the number of leaflets produced by her campaign, she says: "Research has shown that after face-to-face contact, the way we can best communicate with voters is through literature... All of our leaflets are printed on paper from sustainable sources, and the amount of paper we use per constituent is far less than a single newspaper each".

Kirsty Walmsley, Reform UK

The former Shropshire Conservative councillor has driven a Nissan Leaf electric car for six or seven years which she calls a "conscientious choice." But she admits she and her design engineer husband also have a diesel car for longer journeys eg to visit her in-laws in the south.

As a practising Christian, she takes a Christian point of view on the environment, feeling "a responsibility to look after the earth". She's a "big advocate of using natural products without contaminants, like cleaning products, shampoos and conditioners"

She's looked at interventions that would convert her home to a 'zero carbon house'. She supports new nuclear, and wind turbines (but they "have to be in the right place"). She thinks offshore wind is "the way to go".

She thinks people in Shropshire are "very conscientious" – pointing to lots of reuse/upcycling shops in and around the constituency eg in Whitchurch.

She objects to the lack of debate in Parliament about Net Zero. "The ethos should be about making an informed choice. It's a case of the market deciding. Entrepreneurs can see what people want. The government doesn't give credit to people educating and informing themselves".

Ben Wood, Labour Party

The 26-year-old political adviser drives a one-litre petrol car. He'd certainly consider an electric car next, he says: "I'm completely an advocate for electric vehicles. We need to get on and build the infrastructure".

For him, Net Zero is about "opportunity and optimism - not about sacrifice and doom and gloom". His vision includes bringing rail back to outside Oswestry and to other Shropshire towns and villages, trying to attract high-skilled energy jobs, and emulating Welsh Labour's radicalism. On planning, he'd like residents to have powers to give consent to housebuilding in their areas with the proviso that new homes are energy efficient.

Labour is campaigning across all of North Shropshire and trying to tap into the local identities of each of the five market towns with tailored leaflets, Wood says. About the carbon emissions impact of printing lots of paper election literature and campaigners travelling to the constituency, "we're obviously being sensitive" he says.

Duncan Kerr, Green Party

Unlike other candidates, Cllr Kerr refuses to say what car he drives or what climate action he takes as he doesn't want "to go down that road".

"For 20 years, we've had making the environment a consumer agenda, so that those who can afford it get to feel smug and sanctimonious and everyone else feels guilty.

"It's a very dangerous route to go down: 'eco-Look at Me'.

"I'm not going to force vegetarianism on people. I'm not in the business of presenting myself as a greener than green guy – I'm an ordinary guy, I'm sure I get lots of things wrong" he says.

"Society needs to move to zero carbon through governance, not through individual choice. I do wonder about the [consumer green] agenda – it's a nice way of trying to avoid tackling the big issues. We need to call it out."

Don't forget, we will be running a live blog throughout polling day and the count tomorrow on our site.