WITH the general election just four months away, The Bolton News is running a series of features with candidates vying for your vote. Here, political reporter Elaine O'Flynn speaks to UKIP candidate for Bolton North East Harry Lamb.

A CHESS enthusiast and international business owner is the UKIP candidate for Bolton North East.

But Harry Lamb says if elected, he is determined to stand up for local issues and ‘give something’ back to his hometown of Bolton.

The 74-year-old from Astley Bridge is the oldest of the candidates for Bolton North East, a seat currently held by Labour MP David Crausby with a majority of around 4,000 votes.

He and his Tory opponent James Daly accept that Mr Lamb’s share of the vote could have a significant impact on who is elected, as the party’s popularity grows.

Mr Lamb — who regularly travels to Dijon in France to play for a French chess team — told The Bolton News he decided to join UKIP after feeling the effects of EU ‘red tape’ when he came out of retirement to work for an industrial company with bases across the world.

He runs company HiCharms, based in Junction Road, which coordinates and imports chemical zirconium from China into Europe.

Zirconium has many different uses within the space and aeronautical industries, and can also be used to make dental implants and knee and hip replacements.

“I run my own business and I got fed up with the bureaucracy and red tape coming down from the European Union”, he said.

“There is a big safety scheme coming in, and while you can’t complain about safety in practice it is going to make life more difficult for small businesses like mine.

“They are only interested in looking after the interests of big business.”

Mr Lamb argues that allowing the European Court of Human Rights to override legal decisions taken in the UK is wrong, and that the Commission in ‘undemocratic’.

As well as supporting UKIP’s policy to ditch the European Union, Mr Lamb says he supports the party’s call for tighter controls on immigration.

Leaving the EU would mean an end to the free movement of workers throughout its member stages, and UKIP says they want to start a points-based visa system and time-limited work permits.

Immigrants, UKIP add, must financially support themselves and their dependents for five years, including private health insurance, private education and private housing.

“Previously people thought you were racist if you said you were worried about immigration, but UKIP have made it so that it is an issue that everyone can talk about.”

Mr Lamb previously stood for UKIP in the local elections last year, gaining 25 per cent of the vote but losing out to Conservative candidate Cllr John Walsh.

However the party successfully gained two seats on Bolton Council, and Mr Lamb said the experience showed that a vote for UKIP would not be wasted — and he would consider standing as a Euro MP, if the election his May doesn’t go his way.

“When I was campaigning I met people who said they would like to vote for me, but they were not going to because it would let Labour in”, he said.

“What has changed over the last six months is the amount of votes we are taking from Labour is increasing, while we also taking votes from the Conservative party — UKIP is taking a lot of votes.”

The key to being a successful MP, Mr Lamb says, is listening to the experts in the field and taking on their advice.

Reorganisation of the NHS is vital, he adds — but he doesn’t believe any of the political parties have the right formula.

He said: “The NHS is coming under increasing pressure and the main political parties don’t know what to do — they know that something is wrong but they don’t have the backgrounds to know how to fix it.

“It does need to be organised a lot better.”

On transport he adds: “The transport links to Bolton need sorting out. I don’t know what you would do but you need to talk to people about it.

“I thought there would be a big demand for a bypass off Blackburn Road, as there is a big traffic problem along there.”

Voting for UKIP in Bolton North East will not be a wasted vote, Mr Lamb adds.

“When UKIP say they want to change something, people believe us”, he said.

“I want to put something back into Bolton for the way it has looked after me over the last 60 years.”