Janice Atkinson-Small: Why I defected from Cameron, the sceptic who lost the plot

A few glasses were raised, apparently. He said I was very brave and I always had the courage of my convictions and he knows many other former candidates who wish they could join me. But they want to stay on and fight the good fight within the Tory party. This is a common theme but I have been heartened by the reaction from my Conservative friends.

I don’t think I am brave, I just realised that my views on Europe were incompatible with the leaders of the Conservative party. Had I won my seat, I would have been broadly supportive in Parliament, but not on European legislation. I hear that friends of mine, who are moderate MPs in many ways, are bullied and called “swivelled eyed” by the whips when they think they will not get EU legislation through.

I supported David Cameron as leader of the party, against David Davis who shares my political views. I voted for Cameron because he was sold as being the Eurosceptic candidate.

Once selected, his narrative died. Once elected, he became a Europohile. I didn’t believe his rhetoric on “repatriating” powers from Europe. It will not happen, the Liberal Democrats will not let it happen and Cameron does not have the stomach for the fight.

Ukip is the only alternative for real Eurosceptics and real Conservatives. They do not just focus on Europe, they cannot as they are the fourth largest party in Britain. They have elected councillors and have their first elected female mayor. They believe in defending our borders – and that can only happen if we leave the EU.

They believe in a strong defence force and will spend one per cent of GDP on maintaining our forces. Pensions contributions relief will be targeted at lower and average earnings. On justice they believe that life should mean life and will block EU votes for prisoners.

While Cameron and Theresa May play with words to the appease the right-wing press about scrapping the Human Rights Act, their coalition partners will not allow them to. Again, the HRA is a condition of our membership of the EU, but Ukip will scrap it.

These policies resonate with the British public and they resonate with Conservative party members. Indeed, you put these policies to former candidates and they will agree too.

However, as candidates, we were not allowed to discuss Europe and immigration. Those words could not go into our leaflets and campaign materials. They were considered too toxic. Immigration was the biggest issue across West Yorkshire at the last General Election but candidates were not allowed to discuss it.

MPs at a private meeting in Westminster pushed me forward to plead with William Hague and the chief whip. Their eyes glazed over, they got irritated and said that having these discussions would be counter-productive.

I suggested they did not understand the plight of West Yorkshire and they ignored our views at their peril and we would not win seats like mine.

Another reason I left was because they were not standing up for the City of London. It is very on-message to bash the bankers, instead they pander to Left-wing pressure groups who want to introduce the EU Financial Transaction Tax. The City, like it or not, is the one industry that is keeping the UK afloat.

Manufacturing and other industries have been left to decline and have gone to the Far East. If we are not careful, the same things will happen in the City and this will be disasterous for our tax receipts.

The City contributes around five per cent of GDP, £52bn in tax – that’s 100,000 nurses or 10 Olympic stadiums. Britain’s export of financial services grew by 15 per cent a year for over 15 years.

The Financial Transaction Tax will affect Britain the most, these trades will cease or go off-shore, along with the jobs and this tax will raise nothing like its supporters insist. It is not good enough that George Osborne is saying that he is in favour of the tax but it must be implemented globally.

This tax doesn’t just affect the jobs of the high earners, it affects the IT workers, the secretaries, the maintenance staff and the sandwich makers. Dream on George, the Far East and New York is not going to play ball and our jobs and tax revenues will go to Asia.

Will I miss not being with them in Manchester this week? Yes, in some ways.

I won’t get to attend many of the fringe events that represent the real Conservative Party and I will miss having a drink with my friends but apart from that, no. It was much more fun in Eastbourne with Nigel Farage and co.