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One of Ukip’s most senior figures has accused Welsh Labour of alienating many of its working class supporters by adopting a “soft nationalist” approach that isn’t relevant to them.

Former Rochester and Strood Conservative MP Mark Reckless resigned his seat to join Ukip last year and won a by-election. But he was beaten by the Tory candidate at the general election, and is now Ukip’s director of policy development.

'A breath of fresh air'

Mr Reckless confirmed that Ukip had high hopes of winning up to 10 seats at next year’s National Assembly election, saying his party aimed to be a “breath of fresh air” that would end the cosy consensus he believed had developed between the existing parties since the Assembly was set up in 1999.

He said: “My impression is that Plaid and the Lib Dems, to an extent, still exist very associated with Labour – and Labour has moved from being a party that really sought to represent the interests of the working class into one more focused on identity politics, and with a soft nationalist agenda which I don’t think is shared by much of their core support.

I don’t think the average working person in Wales has a burning desire to pay a different tax rate than people in England. So why is that the priority of the politicians?

The Conservatives, I think, are too often looking over their shoulder at what the Government in Westminster wants, always presenting and analysing things in Wales from a perspective of how they do things in England.

“Ukip want to be different, and we want to be asking people in Wales what policies they would like to see. We want to engage with the whole of the public and actually take ideas from them.

"They’ve been frozen out of the system and people haven’t been listened to and not treated properly by the establishment for too long – and it’s that which Ukip stands against, and I think Labour have got rather lost in terms of who or what they represent – here in Wales, as across the UK.”

One of the party’s core policies at the Assembly election, said Mr Reckless, would be direct elections for members of local health boards.

"He said: “[Such elections] in a Welsh context, where we already gave integration of the health system with no purchaser/ provider split, will bring a better democratic oversight to health provision, and also make it much clearer where the responsibility is. We want to make those boards more effective and streamlined, saving the cost of high salaries going to large numbers of non executives.”

Asked whether Ukip would be improving quality control when selecting its candidates – some of whom made racist and other offensive comments during the general election campaign – Mr Reckless said: “I understand we’re going to have a good, professional process. The party’s put a lot of work in and effort, ensuring that the process is fair and we can defend what we do and show it’s done properly.

“You speak to people and ask them about themselves, and research people’s background. But I think no political party can ever guarantee they’re not going to have mavericks in their ranks, and I don’t think we’d want to do that.

“We look to all Ukip representatives, whether in the Assembly or elsewhere, to answer out to their constituents and those who voted for them, rather than in to a party leadership or whipping system. Ukip’s different to other parties in that sense.”

Wales campaign manager Sam Gould, who stood in Caerphilly at the general election, said: “There’s an awful lot of competition for the seats, but it’s going to be local members who select their candidates. The vetting on this is something way beyond what we had in place for the general election.”