A prospective East Devon Parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats will champion the ‘Stop Brexit’ campaign at the coming General Election.

The snap general election is set to take place on Thursday, December 12.

Eleanor Rylance, a long-standing parish councillor, has been a district councillor for more than two years after gaining a seat in a by-election in May 2017.

Since then, she has retained both council seats and joined the South West team of candidates which increased the Lib Dem vote in the European elections, securing the election of Lib Dem MEPs Caroline Voaden and Martin Horwood.

She said: "The Conservative government has had three years to deliver Brexit and has shown itself incapable of doing so.

"The inescapable conclusion is that, whatever the deal, leaving the European Union will make the UK poorer, more isolated and with its influence in the world much diminished. Enough is enough - we need to stop this madness by stopping Brexit."

Last month, the East Devon Liberal Democrat executive unanimously reaffirmed its support for Cllr Rylance.

Local party chairman Penny Lewis said: "The Liberal Democrats are the strongest national force backing remain and are in this election to 'Stop Brexit'.

"Here in East Devon we are proud to be part of that movement to restore sanity and hope to our country. In Eleanor, we have a worthy champion."

A Cambridge Law graduate, Cllr Rylance is a freelance translator and a trained modern languages teacher.

Apart from her council duties, she chairs her local twinning association and is a keen but time-poor vegetable grower.

She is married to Adrian, a research scientist, and they have four children.

Cllr Rylance added: "As a local councillor active in my local community, I try to help people working their hardest but being hammered by national policies.

"I want to become your MP to join a large national team with the power to change those policies for the better."

Outgoing MP Sir Hugo Swire successfully contested the last five consecutive general elections having taken over from Peter Emery who held the seat from 1967 until 2001.

In the last general election, in 2017, Sir Hugo retained his seat with 48.5 per cent of the vote.