Tory MP Claire Perry no longer represents the Devizes constituency claims her UKIP challenger

Devizes MP Claire Perry has become just an unrepresentative cog in the out of touch Tory Party machine, who has to obey orders from No 10 if she wants to climb the political ladder, according to her UKIP opponent David Pollitt.

He claims that is the reason why Mrs Perry, now an assistant party whip, has turned down an invitation take part in an all-party Any Questions-style debate being held at St John’s School, Marlborough, on the eve of the EU elections.

And Wiltshire’s sole UKIP councillor who is challenging 49-year-old Mrs Perry, a governor of St John’s School, at next year’s General Election, believes she can no longer be considered the local MP.

Her place on the platform will be taken by former teacher and Wiltshire Tory councillor Philip Whitehead, the Cabinet member responsible for the county’s highways, who lives in Marlborough and sent his three daughters to St John’s.

As UKIP’s national poll rating surged to 20 per cent in the wake of the Maria Miller scandal, 57-year businessman Pollitt told Marlborough News Online: “It’s sad and disappointing that Claire Perry will not be joining the platform, but she is just following the party line.

“The Tories have become so remote and so detached from everyday hard-working people that they don’t seem to realise the damage they are doing to themselves.  And it’s really a great shame.

“Claire Perry is just a cog in the party machine now and you simply don’t climb the party ladder unless you follow the instructions you have been given by No 10. I don’t even regard her as the constituency MP any more.”

He added:  “And it is not just the Tories who are refusing to debate the EU.  The Labour Party too and the Lib-Dems following the Nigel Farage debates with Nick Clegg are very quiet about the EU because they know they are all in the same sinking boat.”

Mrs Perry last week defended Mrs Miller, describing her as “a very decent, hard working, capable colleague who was investigated properly, found to be innocent of all allegations of wrong-doing, identified herself an over-payment in her favour and corrected it.”

But Mr Pollitt criticised the government for failing to act faster in regulating parliamentary expenses, three independent members of the “toothless watchdog body” not being able to vote in the Mrs Miller investigation.  It resulted in Mrs Miller paying back only £5,800 of her bogus £45,000 expenses claims involving a property where her parents live.

“That was quite ridiculous,” he declared.  “It’s a bit of a slap in the face for the voters of Devizes for Mrs Perry to try to sweep it under the carpet.  We’re talking about the £45,000 that was involved, which is a large amount of money to ordinary working people in this constituency.

“The trouble with Maria Miller is that she allowed the investigation to go on too long – and then it took her too long again to do the decent thing, resign and pay up.

“There doesn’t seem to be any feeling of contrition with these people.  They don’t seem to understand that if they were in any other walk of life there would be serious consequences.

“They would not only be sacked but there would be fraud investigations possibly leading to criminal action against them.  Some MPs have suffered that fate.

“But you can’t dismiss it as Claire Perry has done and say it was a mistake or whatever.  If you are going to make mistakes, then don’t play politics.”

Further criticism of Mrs Perry has come from Neil Hamilton, chairman of Wiltshire UKIP, who has received no response to his earlier challenge to her to debate the European Union with him.

“She is a slavish and uncritically ambitious backer of David Cameron, so that’s why she won’t be showing up for a debate with other candidates in Devizes,” he told Marlborough News Online.

“Like Cameron refusing to debate with Farage, the Tories know they have no answer to UKIP’s main message that we can’t regain control of our borders without leaving the EU.  “Also, like ‘Dave’, Claire is far too grand to descend into the political fray and expose herself to meeting real people.  They have a habit of telling her inconvenient truths.”

And he added: “UKIP’s David Pollitt will be Devizes’ voice in Westminster, unlike Claire Perry, who is Westminster’s voice in Devizes.”