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A campaigning MP is spending part of Parliament’s summer recess visiting the Arctic in an emotional journey mirroring an expedition taken by her dad almost six decades ago.

Labour backbencher Anna McMorrin sets out for the frozen North later this month - 55 years after her father Ian was on the British Antarctic Survey.

He died in October aged 79 - but Anna is keeping his memory alive with her fact-finding mission at the top of the world.

“My trip pales into insignificance compared to his, but it will be really interesting to get even the tiniest little glimpse of the kind of environment that my father was in nearly 60 years ago,” she said.

(Image: Matthew Horwood/Getty)

“I was always really proud of him for having done it, because it’s not everyone’s dad who has been to the Antarctic.

“Growing up, I remember his many stories of life in that vast, beautiful, untouched landscape and how the natural world shaped him.

“His passion for the environment and his determination to change things has stayed with me.”

Cardiff North MP Anna, 46, and colleagues from the Commons Environmental Audit Committee will investigate how micro-plastic contamination is harming marine life.

They will see first-hand the affects of climate change and plastic pollution on the Arctic Circle.

Her father’s pioneering work in the early 1960s included looking at the difference in weather patterns and ice.

His contribution to research was immortalised in the naming of the McMorrin Glacier.

Ian was one of 12 researchers despatched to the Antarctic in 1961 - and his tales of the mission involving sleds, huskies and whales kept Anna and her sister gripped at bedtime.

The proud MP said: “One of the stories he used to tell me and my sister was when he was going out in a little boat to catch fish, which they had to do to survive.

“If you fell in the water you literally had seconds to live.

“He turned around and suddenly this huge eye had risen next to the boat, and it was a huge whale.

“He just sat there absolutely still because he knew that with one flick of the tail, if they ended up in the water they would be dead.

“This whale came over, looked at them and submerged itself and swam way."

Life was hard for the duration of the trip.

“One boat came to them with supplies during the whole time there were there, so it really was completely cut off," she said.

“They had letters sent to them but obviously they got them all at once so they would store them up.”

Ian’s passion for exploration and science rubbed off on his daughter, fuelling her own quest years later.

“His influence, his values, the way he’d talk about what impacted him definitely shaped my interest in looking at humans’ environmental impact on the world,” said Anna.

“It will be interesting to see first hand the impact of the changing Arctic - what’s happening there is very similar in a lot of ways to what is happening in the Antarctic.”

While Ian’s epic mission took two-and-a-half years including travelling, Anna’s odyssey takes four days.

During that time, she hopes to learn more about climate change and plastic pollution so the committee can come up with recommendations for ministers.

“It is unthinkable that our actions today are threatening those previously untouched landscapes in Antarctica and the Arctic, both of which are showing signs of climate change and plastic microbead contamination,” she said.

“That is why I am so passionate about this EAC inquiry; having an opportunity to speak to the people who see the changing environment seeing day in, day out is invaluable.”