ANOTHER new General Election candidate has been selected for the UK Indepen-dence Party in North West Hampshire – the third person to hold the position in a fortnight.

Sue Perkins was named prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for the constituency, which includes Tadley and Whitchurch, at a hustings on Monday night.

It comes after UKIP MEP Diane James withdrew from the position at the end of last month, for “personal reasons”.

Malcolm Bint, an engineer from Petersfield, told The Gazette last Thursday that he was “the man now”, saying that the national executive committee had selected him to be candidate.

However, on Monday, he said he had stepped down because “the local branch decided that they did have a couple of people that were more known locally”.

Mrs Perkins, a 60-year-old mother-of-two from Yateley, said she will not be withdrawing as her colleagues have done.

She said: “The fact that I spent a year researching UKIP before I joined is a commitment in itself. There’s no way that I’m backing out.

“I believe passionately about what this party stands for and we need a change in parliament.”

Mrs Perkins spent eight years in the Army, reaching the rank of captain in the Royal Army Education Corps, before a 25-year career as a teacher. She is now a freelance maths and dyslexia tutor.

In 2007, she appeared on the BBC programme Imagine... as part of a feature on her son Henry, after he became only the second British boy to train with the Bolshoi ballet school in Russia.

Mrs James’ decision to withdraw came a fortnight after her campaign manager, Tony Hooke, stood down as leader of UKIP on Hampshire County Council.

He then resigned from the anti-EU party over the appointment of Paul Lovegrove as its county organiser, leaving the North West Hampshire UKIP branch without a chairman.

The constituency covers part of the borough, including Baughurst, Oakley, Overton, Tadley and Whitchurch.

The North West Hampshire seat is currently occupied by Conservative MP, Sir George Young. However, the 73-year-old announced that he was to step down at the May General Election in December 2013.

The contenders to replace him are Conservative Kit Malthouse, Labour’s Andrew Adams, Liberal Democrat Alex Paynton and Green Party hopeful Dan Hill.