A SURGEON originally from St Helens has been chosen as UKIP's candidate to take on Tim Farron of the Liberal Democrats and Dr Ann Myatt for the Conservatives in the 2015 General Election.

Jonathan Marc Stanley, who currently works in Edinburgh as a surgeon and emergency care doctor, was selected to be the prospective parliamentary candidate for Westmorland and Lonsdale at a hustings meeting in Barrow.

The party said: "People in Westmorland and Lonsdale have further to travel to their A&E than anywhere else in the North West.

"For vulnerable people this is more than a postcode lottery, it's about gambling with their lives.

"We need a professional who gets emergency care to sort this fiasco out, not blue sky promises and orange leaflets."

Noel Matthews, the party's regional organiser in the North West, was chosen as the UKIP candidate to take on Barrow's sitting Labour MP, John Woodcock, for the Barrow and Furness constituency.