One of UKIP’s candidates for the South East in the forthcoming Euro elections, Janice Atkinson, was in Maidstone town centre this morning meeting shoppers.

Mrs Atkinson said her campaign was going well.

She said: “People are angry. They feel conned by the Lib Dem and Conservative parties.

“They want to know why they can’t get an appointment with their GP. They want to know why their greenfields must be built on. They look at the EU’s open-door immigration policy and then they know the answer.”

Mrs Atkinson, whose son is at Maidstone Grammar School, is number two on her party’s list of candidates for the South East.

Unlike our own elections, the elections for the European Parliament are decided via a form of proportional representation.

Votes for each party are added up across the region, and seats are allocated in proportion and in the order of candidates on the parties’ lists. Last time, UKIP secured 13 of the 73 British seats, making it the second largest party; the Conservatives were first.

Mrs Atkinson was joined in Maidstone by some of the local UKIP party members who were campaigning for the Maidstone Borough Council elections, which happen on the same day, Thursday, May 22.

For the first time, UKIP is fielding a candidate in every ward.