This time last week no one had heard of Michael Gould.

Yet his surprise decision to stand in Canterbury - because he wants to "have his name in lights" - could determine the election result in Kent's most marginal seat.

The 71-year-old left-winger admits he has no chance of winning.

But with the 2017 poll leaving Rosie Duffield with a majority of just 187, this time round every single vote really does count.

And Mr Gould’s decision to stand on December 12 has sparked fears on the left that he could hurt the incumbent's chances of returning to Westminster.

“If I worried about that then I’d lose the opportunity to stand, and this is my desire,” he explained.

“I wouldn’t have said I stand a cat’s chance in hell of winning. About a week or so ago I thought, ‘why don’t I stand in this election?’

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do just to have my name in the lights and have my name on the ballot paper.”

Mr Gould believes the impact he will have on Ms Duffield’s share of the vote will be negligible and instead claims he is more likely to entice Conservative and Liberal Democrat supporters.

He grew up in Orpington before moving to Whitstable in 1978, where he will base his pro-Remain election campaign.

The retired civil servant, whose hobbies include amateur dramatics and translating ancient Greek, is a self-described leftist and previously voted for Labour and centrist parties.

“I’ve never been active politically,” he said. “I suppose like everyone else I’m a DFL originally.

“Many years ago I grew up in Orpington and in 1962 there was a famous by-election won by the Liberals. That was the great excitement of my teenage years.”

Mr Gould advocates revoking Article 50 and is calling for Tory cuts to be reversed in order to prevent “the complete collapse of the welfare state”.

But when asked how he would achieve any of his aims if he is not going win, he said: “That’s not the point – I can have my say.”

Mr Gould, who lives with his long-term partner Rico, says his campaign will be self-funded – but, as yet, he is uncertain how he will get out the vote.

“I haven’t worked any of that out yet,” he said. “It’s all going to be very low key. I don’t want to spend a lot of money on this.

“At the moment I want to design a decent poster. I want to make one that would be a work of art or a collector’s piece.

“That is the focus at the moment and I’ll get round to publishing my manifesto in due course.”

Read more: All the latest news from Canterbury and Whitstable

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