Businessman Jim Gascoyne will stand for UKIP Canterbury at next year's general election.

A resident of the city since 2001, Mr Gascoyne will take on Conservative Julian Brazier for the Canterbury and Whitstable seat after being selected by branch members.

He previously stood for election to parliament in the 2001 general election in the Faversham and mid Kent constituency.

He stood in the Kent county election last year and is currently the chairman of the Canterbury UKIP branch.

Mr Gascoyne grew up on a farm near Sittingbourne and spent 22 years living in Selling near Faversham.

As a young man, he worked as a VSO volunteer on agricultural projects in Nigeria, and on his return worked in the city at a specialist bank.

In his spare time he joined the TA and earned a commission in the Royal Military Police
Reserve.

When he married and became a father, Mr Gascoyne ran two small businesses one selling machinery to farmers, builders, councils and gardeners, and the other being a village store and post office.

In 1988, Mr Gascoyne qualified as an English language, negotiation and cross-cultural awareness trainer working with politicians, business executives and civil servants across Europe and the Far East.

He is also a former member of the Chartered Management Institute and has been the president of both the Chaucer Speakers Club and the Rotary Club of Canterbury Sunrise, and was the ASC Kent 'Speaker of the Year' in 2006.