MP Sam Carling declared himself “really impressed” with what he saw on a visit to his local table tennis club, Stilton TTC.

Labour politician Mr Carling was elected to represent the North West Cambridgeshire constituency in this year’s General Election.

At 22, he is the youngest MP in Parliament – which comes with the unofficial title of ‘Baby of the House’ – and the first MP to be born this century.

He chatted with players at the popular session as well as showing some skills on the table.

Club secretary Steve Ambler said: “Sam’s predecessor was due to visit before Christmas, so we extended the invitation to Sam after he was elected, and it’s really good to welcome him. He can see what a powerful group we are.

“He can see how people not only play table tennis here, but we interact socially. We’re glad actually to show off our group, we’re really proud of it.”

Mr Carling said: “I’ve been really impressed today just by the real diversity of people that we’ve got here, all united in just loving the sport and being able to use it as a mechanism to have that social interaction and engagement.

“I think it’s really important for a lot of reasons – it helps to reduce older people’s isolation, it helps to keep people active.”

“Some areas, especially of community funding, a lot of which councils typically fund, have been slowly scaled back over a number of years because of the position that councils are in.

“It’s very much something that I’d like to see more investment in as and when that’s possible, because it really does have huge community benefits and value for people.

“I used to play table tennis a little bit when I was younger, in school, and it brought back some nice memories. I used to really enjoy it, and maybe I’ll have to get into it again when I’ve got the time.”

Steve added: “I think with a little bit of coaching, if he can get his bat angles right, he will be okay. He can keep the ball on the table, but to tell the truth, his grip is awful!”