UKIP has announced the party’s candidate for a Southampton seat in next year’s General Election.

Pearline Hingston has been chosen as the party’s contender for the Test constituency for a second time.

She becomes the fifth candidate to be announced for the seat, with voters set to head to the polls next May.

Ms Hingston, who grew up in West Yorkshire and moved to Southampton in 2001 to work in higher education, will also stand as a city council candidate for Millbrook in next year’s council elections.

She previously stood as the Eurosceptic party’s candidate in Southampton Test at the 2010 General Election, when she got 1,726 votes, a 3.9 per cent share of the vote.

Ms Hingston says that if elected, one of her priorities will be to focus on education, training and employment for young people in Southampton.

She said: “Due to pressures from uncontrolled EU immigration, our young are finding it more difficult to get work.

“This competition has a knock-on effect on every aspect of our lives, and many people do not realise this.

“In health, education, employment, housing, crime etc we are feeling these effects, with our infrastructure buckling under the strain.

“We need Members of Parliament from diverse backgrounds, and as an Asian woman, I feel that I have a good understanding of the issues affecting those from less-privileged backgrounds, and can empathise with their situation.”

She follows Labour’s Alan Whitehead, Conservative Jeremy Moulton, the Green Party’s Angela Mawle and independent candidate Chris Davis in declaring her intention to stand for the seat.