A lifelong Conservative says he has quit the party over “disloyalty” and the “pig’s breakfast” being made of Brexit.

Martin Veal, a Bath & North East Somerset Council member for twenty years, said the Tories at a national level are in “disarray” and claimed party politics should have no place in the authority. Once the local Conservative whip – although he says he never directed how his colleagues voted – he believes he can better represent his ward as an Independent.

Despite Cllr Veal’s claims he resigned because of issues within the party, B&NES Council’s Tory leader, Tim Warren, painted a different picture, and said the Bathavon North representative had failed the selection process. He dismissed Cllr Veal’s campaign pledge to oppose a park and ride on Bathampton Meadows as “scaremongering and cheap electioneering” and said the idea was already “dead and buried.”

Cllr Veal will also oppose a link road between the A36 and A46, and call for trams to run alongside bikes on the Bristol-Bath cyclepath. Speaking of leaving the Conservative party, he said: “It’s a decision that’s been coming for a while. I don’t think local politics should be about party politics. I’ve been well supported locally but there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of loyalty nationally.

“Politics needs to change. I would be disingenuous with myself if I didn’t make a stand. I think being an independent is the way forward. You can make a real difference as a cabinet member. It can be very frustrating as a back-bencher – it’s difficult to influence decisions.”

“If you look at what the party is doing at a national and regional level, it’s an absolute mess. There’s a huge amount of money available through Tim Bowles, (Regional Mayor) but he hasn’t exactly been high profile.

“We have a massive social care problem that the Government needs to address. Add Brexit and you have a pig’s breakfast of massive proportions. Locally, the Conservatives will be in a lot of trouble.

“There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors around Brexit and a lot of false information out there. The country is in more crisis than at any other point in my lifetime.”

Stephen Sumner, LDR