In the run-up to the General Election on May 7, the Standard will be interviewing the candidates vying to represent North Wiltshire in Parliament. This week, Elliot Cass met the Green Party’s Phil Chamberlain.

REACHING disengaged voters, new ways of communicating, and offering an enticing alternative to the Conservatives – that is how Phil Chamberlain plans to oust James Gray as MP for North Wiltshire.

Born in north London, the 43-year-old son of a trade union activist has been involved with politics since childhood and also understands the media as he is in the broadcasting and journalism department at the University of the West of England (UWE) and the secretary of the National Union of Journalists.

And the father-of-three knows about local politics, having served on the parish council in Colerne, near Corsham, for 10 years after moving there 14 years ago with his wife Kathryn.

So it would be fair to say that Mr Chamberlain knows what it takes to appeal to the public – but in north Wiltshire it will take a minor miracle to defeat Mr Gray, the Tory MP who has increased his majority at each election since he was first voted in back in 1997.

Mr Chamberlain knows this, of course, as he stood at the last election in 2010, but he is adamant that he has learnt from his mistakes.

“Last time I relied on people in a very small area but this time I’m getting donations from people across the constituency,” he said.

“Wiltshire is very rural and unfortunately that requires a lot of boots on the ground.

“Social media is one way we can shorten those distances.”

And he believes that it is a myth that Mr Gray will coast back to Parliament because north Wiltshire is a “safe seat”.

“I don’t think there’s any such thing as a natural Tory stronghold,” he said.

Mr Chamberlain said people looked to the Green Party as an alternative and that many people who previously voted for them in protest were now long-term supporters, and he is hoping that more of the so-called “disenfranchised” will turn to him.

“I’m very bothered that a huge part of the community is just not represented,” he said.

Although the environment is integral to his politics, he said it was in the context of improving people’s lives through better transport and jobs in the green economy.

On Europe, Mr Chamberlain said he would not support a referendum at the moment but would not rule one out entirely.

He also decried the rises in university tuition fees and cuts in NHS funding, and called for a shift in military spending away from nuclear deterrents.