THE Dudley local election battle in the St James’s ward will see a former UKIP councillor back in the fray – fighting for the Conservatives.

Malcolm Davis served on Dudley Council for almost 12 years and is the only Dudley councillor to have won his seat as a UKIP candidate.

However his relationship with UKIP turned sour and he defected to the Tories, claiming he was not supported by UKIP in his attempts to win a general election campaign and the party is only interested in Euro-elections.

Mr Davies said: “They put politics before people, what they need to do is support people and go round and work for them instead of belly-aching.

“In local policies from UKIP and the Tories you can’t get a hair between them, they are pretty well the same - now I am with a professional organisation.”

During his visit to Dudley UKIP leader Nigel Farage dismissed Mr Davis’s complaints about his party.

He said: “We have given up on the Conservative and Labour parties, we have decided we must go our own way.

“We were incredibly patient with Malcolm Davis over years and years and years and in the end Malcolm Davis did not want to be part of the UKIP team here for whatever reason and, do you know what, that’s life.

“He is one person, if you look at the team, the 24 candidates UKIP is putting up here, we have got some damn good people.”