A FORMER Tunbridge Wells Conservative councillor who was selected as one of David Cameron's A-list parliamentary candidates has defected to Labour.

Judith Symes, who represented Tunbridge Wells borough council for three years between 1999 and 2002, said she had lost faith in the Conservatives and was now supporting Labour.

Her defection will be an embarrassment to Conservative party chiefs and will be seen as a reflection of Labour’s success in reaching out to supporters from other parties.

Ms Symes, 43, came close to becoming an MP at the general election in 2005 when she stood for the Brighton Kemptown seat and nearly unseated the Labour MP Des Turner.

During the election campaign, she was endorsed by Sandra Howard, wife of then party leader Michael Howard, who praised her as one of a new generation of candidates who were "feisty and young and in the 21st century".

Ms Symes - who as a Tunbridge Wells councillor went under her then married name of Judith Aungier - said: "The Conservatives badly needed reform and David Cameron presented himself as the reformer but he is not succeeding.

"He has not gathered together a cross-section of society. Instead, elitism and exclusivity are at the heart of the party."

Conservative Tunbridge Wells county councillor James Scholes, who first met her as a student when he was canvassing during a local election, said: "I think she has been hell bent on getting a seat in Parliament, almost at any cost.

"She was fairly determined and maybe she now thinks Labour offers her a better chance."