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Ukip have selected a 21-year-old student and former Lib Dem activist to stand against Nick Clegg in the 2015 election.

Joe Jenkins, a student from Oxford, studying in Dundee is chair of Ukip's national student wing and a former member of the Liberal Democrats. He left the party over their u-turn on University tuition fees.

The local Labour candidate accused Ukip of 'parachuting' Jenkins in to a seat where he won't understand local issues.

Jenkins says he wanted to challenge the seat to expose "the outright betrayal of students by the other political parties and especially Nick Clegg."

“I was a Lib Dem member but left the party due to the lies and betrayal from MPs like him."

Sheffield Hallam was once a Lib Dem stronghold, with Nick Clegg holding the seat with a 15,000 majority in 2010.

But the Cleggmania that saw huge queues of students at polling stations has fallen away, and Labour are now neck-and-neck in the polls.

ElectionForecast.co.uk has the Lib Dems just two points ahead of Labour on predicted vote share, with Ukip on just 7%.

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Labour candidate Oliver Coppard described Ukip's policies as "divisive and backward looking" and said "Given that this guy is being parachuted in from who knows where I don't know how he looks to understand local issues in any meaningful way"

Mr Jenkins is in his final year studying politics at the University of Dundee. He founded Ukip Students after visiting the NUS conference and "seeing delegates vote to oppose Ukip."

Neither The University of Sheffield Students' Union or Sheffield Hallam University Student's Union has a Ukip society.

"I want to galvanise the young people of Sheffield Hallam" he said. "And show them that there is still hope and that political engagement will not result in lies and deceit."

Jenkins told the Guardian he had actively campaigned for the Liberal Democrats at the 2010 election.

"I campaigned and told all my friends to vote for the Liberal Democrats," he said. "Because ‘when we go to university it’ll be free’. And then for me to turn around and tell my friends, ‘Oh, sorry, they lied to me too’ – it was ridiculous. I’ll never forgive them for it."

Ukip say they'll scrap tuition fees for science, medicine, technology, engineering and maths degrees, conditional on "academic performance" and graduates living, working and paying tax in the UK for five years after completing their degrees.

The party have also pledged to scrap the target of 50% of school leavers going to university.