A STUDENT from Church will stand for Ukip in Blackburn at next year’s General Election.

Dayle Taylor, 20, was selected by party officials to fight Labour’s Kate Hollern and Conservative Bob Eastwood in the town when MP Jack Straw retires.

The former St Christopher’s High School student is studying for a degree in sociology and politics at Chester University. He also runs the party’s North West youth wing.

He said: “I was not the sort of person who you would expect to get involved with politics when I was at school.

“I come from a poor working-class family and was not particularly interested until I took an AS Level course in politics.

“It was while studying politics that I came across a module called the EU in Britain and the more I learned about it, the more I learned it was something the people had never voted for.

“I looked at the policies of Labour, the Conservatives and Labour but I found Ukip was the only party taking a stand against the EU.

“And now the party has built something much more exciting and vibrant.”

Mr Taylor also highlighted education policies such as bringing back grammar schools and the opposition to the privatisation of the NHS as reasons to represent the party.

He added: “I chose Blackburn rather than Hyndburn as it has such a strong Labour majority I think it will be a very good experience.

“I am still at university so I don’t want to end up in Parliament.

“But with Ukip anything can happen, as was seen in Heywood and Middleton where we ran Labour close, but for me it is more a good opportunity to get some experience of campaigning for something I truly believe in.”