A Romsey jeweller has been chosen as a UKIP general election candidate.

Kim Rose, who owns Scarletts in the Cornmarket will contest the Southampton Itchen seat.

Mr Rose, says he is campaigning on tackling deprivation in the city, as well as wanting to pull the UK out of the EU.

Despite briefly standing as an independent in Itchen in 2010 before pulling out, Mr Rose has been a party member since 1999.

He said: “At the beginning I was giving speeches in pubs with Nigel Farage to about 20 people, and people were asking ‘what is UKIP’?

“It normally takes a political party 100 years to properly break through, but because of the climate and what politics is nowadays, the party is rising at a rapid pace.

“I am not anti-Europe, I am anti-EU and its laws. There’s got to be an Australian-style point system on immigration, so when people come into the country they have their private health insurance and don’t start using the NHS.

“After they have lived here for five years and contributed, then it would be different. Quite frankly this is just common sense.”