Brexit Party Candidate In UK Election Lives In Australia

A Brexit Party candidate in Britain's election next month has raised eyebrows after it emerged he lives more than 9,000 miles from the seat he is contesting

London, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Nov, 2019 ) :A Brexit Party candidate in Britain's election next month has raised eyebrows after it emerged he lives more than 9,000 miles from the seat he is contesting.

Ed Punchard, a documentary filmmaker, is listed as residing "in Australia" on nomination forms for the constituency of Tynemouth in northeast England.

He lives in Fremantle, near Perth, in western Australia, but originally hails from Devon in southwest England.

Punchard told a local newspaper in Tynemouth, where campaigning is under way, that he plans to buy a house there if elected on December 12.

"My current address is Australia but my wife and I are in Tynemouth and looking to buy a house here," he told The Chronicle.

"We are dedicated to the place and plan to be here on a full-time basis," the candidate added, arguing that showed "how strongly I feel about representing the people of Tynemouth".

Punchard has links to the region after working in the North Sea oil and gas industry.

He reportedly survived the world's worst offshore oil rig disaster on board the Piper Alpha, which exploded off Aberdeen, northeast Scotland, with the loss of 167 lives.

The candidate moved to Australia following the tragedy and is now managing director of Prospero Productions, a Fremantle-based independent documentary production company.

"I have a great fondness for the North East because of my time in the North Sea," he said.

"It has a place in my heart forever." The other four candidates running in Tynemouth, which is currently represented by an MP from the main opposition Labour Party, all listed addresses in northeast England.

Some appeared eager to highlight their local roots on Thursday.

"I have lived and worked in Tynemouth for over 35 years running successful businesses and raising my young family," Lewis Bartoli, the candidate for the ruling Conservatives, wrote on Facebook.

"I am also a Councillor for Tynemouth so know first hand the real issues that matter to our residents and businesses." Arch-eurosceptic Nigel Farage set up the Brexit Party earlier this year, decrying the ruling Conservatives failure to deliver on the 2016 EU referendum result.

Britons voted narrowly to leave the European Union in the poll but political deadlock over its divorce terms have stalled the process.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson called next month's election to try to win a parliamentary majority and push through his withdrawal deal agreed last month with Brussels.

In a bid to stop opposition parties gaining enough seats to force another referendum, Farage is not fielding candidates in seats won by Johnson's party in the last election.

He has faced intense pressure to stand down in most of the other seats too, to avoid splitting the eurosceptic vote, but has refused.