UKIP has announced its candidates to stand in two key seats in Hampshire at next year’s General Election.

Patricia Culligan will stand for the party in Eastleigh next May, while Kim Rose will contest the Southampton Itchen seat.

Mrs Culligan, a former television presenter, social worker and lecturer, who has also worked in the oil and energy sector, will look to build on the party’s second place in Eastleigh at last year’s by-election.

Among the issues she will campaign on is the “congestion” in the constituency and the effect of new housing estates on its infrastructure.

She said increased immigration from the European Union (EU) had put pressure on school places, waiting times to see GPs and the amount of time it takes to be seen.

The mother of three, who says she is a former Labour voter, said: “I am not anti-immigration, more in favour of worldwide, controlled immigration.

“The public have concerns about the increasing number of migrants, but this isn’t a Little England approach as we would much rather be dealing with the whole world than just a bloc of Europe.

“This is about a cause for me, it’s about representing people and being willing to stand up for the issues that they have to deal with on a daily basis.

"The party is not perfect, but it is evolving and it is a fresh voice that is listening to people.”

In Southampton Itchen, Mr Rose, the owner of the Gold Exchange and Scarlets Jewellery in Romsey, says he is campaigning on tackling deprivation in the city, as well as wanting to pull the UK out of the EU.

Despite briefly standing as an independent in Itchen in 2010 before pulling out, Mr Rose has been a party member since 1999.

He said: “At the beginning I was giving speeches in pubs with Nigel Farage to about 20 people, and people were asking ‘what is UKIP’?

“It normally takes a political party 100 years to properly break through, but because of the climate and what politics is nowadays, the party is rising at a rapid pace.

“I am not anti-Europe, I am anti-EU and its laws. There’s got to be an Australian-style point system on immigration, so when people come into the country they have their private health insurance and don’t start using the NHS.

“After they have lived here for five years and contributed, then it would be different. Quite frankly this is just common sense.

“I am Southampton born and bred, and I am passionate about this city.”