The prospective Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Central Devon has challenged current Central Devon MP Mel Stride to get on his bike and join him as a takeaway delivery driver following his suggestion that over 50s should be open to taking on more flexible job roles such as delivering takeaways.

Mark Wooding braved Storm Antoni and got on his bike last week to deliver the challenge personally to Mr Stride’s Ashburton offices. The stunt comes after Mr Stride, who is also the Work and Pensions Secretary, told The Times newspaper that older people might wish to consider taking on flexible job roles traditionally aimed at younger people — one of which could include being a takeway delivery driver.

Mr Stride told the Times: “What we’re seeing here is the ability to log on and off any time you like, no requirement to have to do a certain number of hours over a certain period of time, which is driving huge opportunities. There are loads of great opportunities out there for people and it is of course good for people to consider options they might not have otherwise thought of. You really do need to sensibly stop, take where you are in life, and assess whether for example you’ve got enough money to get you through with the kind of lifestyle and living standards that you’re expecting.”

On delivering the challenge to Mr Stride, Mr Wooding said: “I am challenging Mr Stride to get out of the comfort of his ministerial limo and to spend a day with me as a cycle courier delivery rider. I was frankly surprised comments were attributed to Mr. Stride that 50+ year olds should consider taking up cycle courier delivery riding as a career to help with the punishing, Conservative cost-of-living crisis. What I know of the job is that it is physically gruelling, dangerous and financially insecure. I have to say it is not the first thing I would have thought of to recommend. It does suggest Mr. Stride is more than a little out of touch with the electorate.

However, a spokesperson for Mr Stride said that the MP’s comments have been misrepresented by the national media and is not suggesting that all over 50s should become delivery drivers.

The spokesperson said: “As ever Mel is firmly focused on supporting his constituents and won’t be indulging in this kind of party political stunt. At DWP he is also working hard to encourage more economically inactive people to return to work with 360,000 having already done so since the pandemic with near record low levels of unemployment.

“His recent comments on early retirees are being misrepresented. He is not pressing for over 50 early retirees to pursue any particular career or indeed even to return to work if they are comfortable in their retirement.

The transcript of his interview comments makes this clear: ‘I think as a department we shouldn’t be prescriptive, so we’re not here to start pontificating about whether people should or should not go back into work. Those are personal decisions for them. There are many people who’ve worked extremely hard, done well and want to retire early. There’s nothing wrong with that’.”