A Labour frontbencher says it isn't normal for the party to inform its MPs when one of their top brass is visiting – unless they're coming to their area.

The shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, who was in Chatham this morning, made the remarks after a row erupted following Sir Keir Starmer's visit to the county earlier this month.

The Labour leader came to the Medway Towns almost two weeks ago, and following the visit, the county's only Labour MP, Rosie Duffield who represents Canterbury in parliament, complained she wasn't informed he would be coming.

Responding to the row, Mr Streeting said: "We always inform local MPs when we visit their constituencies.

"I have told the local Conservative MP I am in their patch today, but it's not normal to inform people right across the whole county."

The MP was visiting the Universities at Medway campus where he took a tour of Canterbury Christ Church University's surgical skills training facility.

His visit coincided with the third day of junior doctors' strikes, in which they are calling for a 35% increase in pay.

Mr Streeting told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "I think it's appalling junior doctors have been driven to strike action, just as nurses were forced to strike for the first time in their history.

"The government's got to recognise the big risk here isn't simply junior doctors walking out for more days of strike action, but walking out of the NHS altogether. "

He said the government needs to get junior doctors on board for discussions, before adding patients who are having their operations were the people suffering.

Today, the party unveiled some of its plans to get more NHS staff on the frontline.

It says it will achieve this by doubling the number of medical school places, training 10,000 more nurses and midwives, doubling the number of new district nurses, and training 5,000 new health visitors.

Labour said abolishing the non-dom tax status - which allows some UK residents to pay their taxes overseas - would fund this.

Mr Streeting, who represents Ilford North in parliament, also spoke about Ms Duffield's treatment on social media.

Last year, research from the BBC Shared Data Unit which was shared with KentOnline revealed Ms Duffield received the second-highest number of toxic tweets of all of Kent's MPs.

Her stance on trans rights and the debate surrounding gender recognition has led to her receiving a number of abusive responses on Twitter.

He said: "She is an important voice in the parliamentary Labour party, she's a respected colleague and the way that Rosie Duffield is treated on social media often I think is appalling and I've condemned it in the past.

"I think it's important MPs are able to express their views on behalf of their constituents and are treated in a respectable way and I hope we can get a better quality of debate and that Rosie Duffield will see better treatment on social media than she has."