A Sutton man has discovered he is related to the first British-born woman MP to sit in the House of Commons.

Paul Longbottom uncovered his link with Margaret Wintringham while researching his family tree.

The trailblazing Keighley woman entered Parliament in 1921 following the death of her MP husband.

During her short political career Margaret championed social issues including women's rights, equal pay and child support.

Cabinet maker Paul, 34, of West Lane, believes Margaret's achievements should earn her a prominent place in local history books.

And he says many members of the Longbottom family, scattered around the Keighley and South Craven area, can also count her as a relative.

Paul and Margaret are cousins eight times removed: his great-great-great grandfather was Margaret's great-grandfather. Paul is proud of his "forgotten" relative.

"Ann Cryer has done well as an MP, but to do it in 1921 was amazing," he says.

"She came from a mill village in Yorkshire and went on to mix with the likes of Nancy Astor.

"They went to South Wales together during the General Strike to look at the conditions in mining towns.

"At the time Margaret was regarded as a bit of a radical. If an issue came to her attention she did something about it.

"She had a lot of support from the suffrage movement. She raised a lot of issues over child labour and child prostitution in the Far East."

Paul says Margaret did not actively take part in her first General Election campaign. "She kept a step back and wore black 'widow's weeds'," he says.

"A lot of Tories were horrified that she won. They contested the seat more strongly the next time to get it back.

Paul found much detail about Margaret's short Parliamentary career in the Louth archives, but less about her later life.

He says: "She stayed active, doing a lot of things in Louth. She didn't marry again and didn't have children."

Margaret occasionally revisited the Keighley area, the last time in 1953 for the centenary celebrations of Silsden's Wesleyan Sunday School.

Paul has long been interested in history, and several years ago decided to continue his father's efforts to compile a family tree.

The Longbottoms originated in the Halifax area in the 1300s and spread around West Yorkshire over the following centuries.

Paul first came across Margaret in a pamphlet on the history of Silsden, where her father David was head of the former Bolton Road School.

A plaque commemorating David Longbottom remains in Silsden Town Hall, and Longbottom Avenue is named after him.

Paul says: "He was very well known. They had a lot of money so they could afford to educate Margaret.

"She had two brothers who died very young, and a younger sister who I think survived."