Former Labour chairman Harriet Yeo replaces Janice Atkinson in Folkestone & Hythe

Janice Atkinson has been replaced with former Labour Party chairman, Harriet Yeo, as UKIP PPC for Folkestone & Hythe.

Atkinson has been expelled from the party along with her chief of staff over a dodgy expense claim.

Yeo was chairman of the Labour Party between 2012-13, a member of the Labour Party's national executive and Treasurer and President of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) trade union. She resigned from the Labour Party earlier this year and announced her support for UKIP but stopped short of joining the party. She has now joined the party and will contest the Folkestone & Hythe seat for UKIP.

Harriet Yeo resigns from Labour, now backing UKIP

The former chairman of the Labour Party's ruling National Executive Council, Harriet Yeo, has resigned from the party and is backing UKIP in the upcoming election.

Whilst she is not thought to have joined the party at this time, she is publicly supporting UKIP in May.

Harriet Yeo was chairman of Labour's NEC between 2012 and 2013 and is a life long trade unionist, having served as president of the TSSA union for some time.

Several Labour MPs are rumoured to have been in talks with UKIP about defecting, staying true to the Labour Party's traditional stance of opposing EU membership and mass immigration because of the harm it causes to employment prospects and wages.

Labour Chair's daughter joins UKIP

The daughter of the Chair of Labour's governing NEC, Angharad Yeo, has joined UKIP.

Angharad's mother, Cllr Harriet Yeo, is Chair of Labour's NEC, President of the TSSA union and leader of the Labour group on Ashford Borough Council.  Her decision to join UKIP will be a major embarrassment for Labour who rely on fear, self interest and nepotism to keep their numbers up.

The main parties are simply not listening when it comes to matters such as immigration. It may be somewhat a taboo subject but it is vital that we talk about it. It is especially valid in Ashford which has suffered from a huge influx of migrants as one of the first ports of call in the UK.

My daughter attends school in Ashford and I have benefited from maternity and healthcare in South Ashford. I have seen for myself the strain put on local services by the swelling population. It is not a question of race or creed, but of numbers. I am of Saudi origin, and it infuriates me when people paint those of us who believe immigration must be better controlled as in some way xenophobic.

I decided to join UKIP as I strongly believe that the two party system we have in the UK is not working. I was brought up in a Labour voting family and my mother still works for the party as Chair of the NEC. But I came to decide neither Labour nor the Conservatives really represent the people anymore. They have become unaccountable to their core voters, and important issues that really matter to hardworking taxpayers are ignored or brushed under the carpet.

I hope I prove that UKIP defectors are not all unhappy Tories. In fact the sort of policies UKIP promotes, from bringing back Grammar schools, to the added cost to energy bills of green policies, and of course, the pressure immigration is putting on jobs and services, are particularly pertinent to traditional Labour voters.