Former Tory Candidate to Stand for UKIP in 2015 General Election

A former Conservative Party election candidate will stand for UKIP at next year’s General Election, Breitbart London understands.

Peter Whittle, director of the influential New Culture Forum, stood for the Conservative Party at local elections in 2006, but has since defected to UKIP and has recently been named as the party’s candidate for Eltham in South East London.

Whittle – who is a gay man in a party that is often wrongly accused of being ‘homophobic’ due to its opposition to David Cameron’s Same Sex Marriage bill – had a long career in the Conservative Party prior to defecting in 2013. 

He served as the Chairman of the University of Kent Tories, and was also Kent County Chairman of the Federation of Conservative Students, the forerunner to Conservative Future – the party’s youth movement. But now he’s on Nigel Farage’s team, and is also due to speak at UKIP conference next week.

“Peter is a great candidate, and I’m delighted,” said Paul Oakley, Chairman of UKIP’s Greenwich and Lewisham branch. 

“He knows Eltham extremely well having grown up and lived here. This next election is without doubt one of the most important in our lifetime, and Peter and his team will be doing everything they can in the coming months to put our message across to the voters of Eltham.”

“I’m thrilled to have been selected,” said Whittle. 

“Having come from the area, it’s a particularly personal honour for me. UKIP speaks directly to the huge numbers of people in Eltham who are desperately concerned about the way our country is governed, who are worried by the effects of mass immigration and who are rightly contemptuous of the uselessness of the old parties. The political climate is changing by the day, and I firmly believe UKIP can achieve something remarkable here in Eltham.”

Eltham is not thought to be a winnable or target seat for UKIP. In fact the party’s vote share decreased at the 2010 General Election. Instead, it is regarded as a two-way marginal between Labour and the Conservatives – the latter of which will be concerned that Whittle’s popularity will split the right wing vote and hand Labour’s incumbent, Clive Efford, another victory.