By Viktor Berg

“True conservative” Tim Page, the Brexit Party’s parliamentary candidate for North Dorset, wants to see a small state, low tax, low regulation and light touches from the government to produce a dynamic economy.

But first, it was Brexit before anything else: “I’m a better conservative than the current incumbent. If you’re trying to get Brexit through, Boris would rather have me there,” Tim said in an exclusive interview with Valley News.

To get democracy working properly and functional, the first thing necessary was to implement it, he stressed.

“We must break the two-party mould. We need to get democracy working and the decision of the referendum must be honoured. I don’t accept the ‘I didn’t vote for a no deal: it’s fully in accordance with what we did in 2016.

“If Brexit is undelivered, anything is possible: but (if we leave) the sky’s the limit for us (the UK). We could leave on WTO (World Trade Organisation) terms,” he added.

Tim, a climate change sceptic, stood for election in Devizes in the 2017 general election and has campaigned over the years against industrial scale wind turbines. He preferred solar panels to wind farms, but also hoped research would lead to more use of hydrogen fuel cells as a cheaper, cleaner source of power.

Born in Aldershot, Tim lived in Wiltshire from the age of 15 and attended Eton College.Both of his parents were GPs, his mother practising in Chippenham for many years and his father a senior medical officer in the Army.

The father of three, two sons and a daughter aged from 19 to 24, worked as a solicitor covering financial law and regulations for more than 30 years. He and his wife now run a horse-breeding farm near Trowbridge.

He occasionally consults on matters of law but says he has “20 more years and I want to do more.” He labelled himself as a “true conservative” who is passionate about leaving the EU and to expand free trade after the fact.

“I am confident I can lead people of different values and backgrounds,” he said. “I’m out there delivering Brexit – I do whatever is required, I have no searing political ambition. I just want to be competent, honest and straightforward and convince people we are right, and the Conservatives are wrong.”

In a general election, Tim sees no reason why his party couldn’t get a third of the votes and break up the two-party system. He has strong opinions on education and training and skills. He would like to see the teaching profession more highly-regarded, and schools being more competitive, but more emphasis on non-academic skills training.

He claims he will “definitely” do his best to stand up for people in all sectors of society and use his voice in such areas as planning decisions, for instance.

On agriculture, he said farm subsidies should be all about producing cheaper food.

On global topics, he said airports cannot be held back as the UK should be well-connected with the world. He said he is sceptical of man-made climate change and is a firm believer that the UK “should not put on a hair shirt” as countries like China, Russia and the US are the “big villains” in atmospheric pollution.

He believes that all airports should have more capacity to help trade worldwide. Britain had to be a magnet for inward investment, he emphasised.