With campaigning for the General Election under way in the North Wiltshire constituency we meet the UK Independence Party's candidate.

UKIP candidate Pat Bryant secured 2,076 votes in the Devizes constituency in the 2010 General Election and, five years on, her attention has turned to North Wiltshire.

The business and risk consultant, born in Bath, secured 4.5 per cent of the vote five years ago as Claire Perry secured a comfortable majority.

Mrs Bryant, of Springfield Road in Rowde, joined UKIP in 2009 and said she has been interested in politics ever since she voted 'no' in the 1975 EU referendum.

Planning and the issues surrounding the rural agricultural nature of the North Wiltshire constituency are high up on her priority list.

She said: “I think we have got massive planning issues throughout Wiltshire not just North Wiltshire.

“We are vastly over-governed, Westminster does not have a clue about Corsham or Royal Wootton Bassett – those decisions need to be taken locally. It needs to be local decision making.

“Something that does not get raised often is agriculture in the countryside. I am trying to persuade UKIP that we need to add agriculture to the last of required skills which would get a bursary through university fees. Young people are not going into farming anymore.”

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has already announced that his party would scrap tuition fees for students studying science, technology, engineering, maths or medical degrees.

Mrs Bryant added: “I think we are going to run out of farmers and people who work on the land long before we run out of land even with solar panels.

"It’s very worrying, who is going to produce the next generation’s food? Why does the countryside not matter anymore? Why is everything about London and the cities?”

“I think Wiltshire in general is defence-related and it bothers me immensely that the defence budget has been cut so much.

Like many UKIP candidates, Mrs Bryant said she had lost patience with the current politicians and plans to be an open and honest voice for her constituents.

She said: “I am so fed up with lies, half-truths, smoke and mirrors and politicians who will not grasp the nettle and tell the public the truth. It’s bribes and half promises of this, that and the other.

“They won’t stand up there and say we can’t do that because the EU won’t let us or there isn’t enough money or whatever.

“What really made me cross recently is they could take a penny off a pint of beer duty, would that not have been better spent on the NHS or putting into legal aid?”

Mrs Bryant added that she was delighted to see sixth form and Year 11 students with an interest in politics ask her questions at Malmesbury School.

“It’s great, I got beaten up on global warming and all sorts of things like that, but that’s the idealism of the young and we need it like that,” she added.

Age: N/A

Address: Springfield Road, Rowde, Devizes

Occupation: Business consultant

Marital status: Widow

Children: Son and daughter

Standing in North Wiltshire are: Peter Baldrey (Labour); Pat Bryant (UKIP); Phil Chamberlain (Green); James Gray (Conservative); Simon Killane (Independent); Brian Mathew (Lib Dem); Giles Wareham (Independent).