'Admit UKIP was right and I won't stand' says party's Northampton North candidate

Parliamentary candidate Jonathan Bullock says he will not stand if Michael Ellis agrees to back UKIP policies.

The party that campaigned to leave the EU last year has announced the two candidates it intends to stand in the Northampton seats on June 8 this morning.

In Northampton North the party's county-wide spokesman Jonathan Bullock, who took 16 per cent fo the vote in the Kettering constituency two years ago, has been selected to contest seat-holder Michael Ellis.

The current policy director at the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport lives in Geddington and has recently made a pact with Kettering MP Philip Hollobone not to oppose him, as long as Mr Hollobone agrees to support UKIP’s main policies.

Rose Gibbins will stand again in Northampton South.

After being selected today, Mr Bullock has now made a similar offer to Conservative Mr Ellis.

He said: "If he agrees without reservation that the Brexit campaign was right and signs a similar pact to the one that I have just agreed with Philip Hollobone, I will not oppose him - otherwise he can prepare for the fight of his political life."

Mr Ellis campaigned to remain in last year's EU referendum, and wrote on his website that “jobs will not be safe, mortgages will be at risk and funding for local schools and hospitals will fall” in the event of a leave vote.

Also announced this morning, former local government political assistant Rose Gibbins has been confirmed as UKIP's candidate in Northampton South.

Mrs Gibbins, originally from Loch Lomond in Scotland, came third in the 2015 election when she stood for the same seat and intends to fight for a new teaching hospital in Northampton to help the NHS recruit doctors. She also intends to campaign for a light railway in the town if elected.

She said: "As a UKIP candidate, I am not bound by a party whip which means I am free to represent people instead of politics and ensure that their voice is heard.

"Almost 60 percent of people in Northampton voted to leave the European Union in the referendum.

"If elected, I intend to hold Mrs May to account to deliver the deal they voted for. Not a “hard” Brexit, not a “soft” Brexit, just Brexit."