An Oxhey Hall parish councillor who resigned from the Conservatives has defected to the UK Independence Party, citing anger at her former party’s policies on an EU referendum and immigration.

Diane Day said she could no longer campaign for the Conservative party as she did not agree with what it was doing in Government.

The Watford Rural Parish Council representative said she now hoped to stand for UKIP in the coming Three Rivers District Council elections.

Speaking to the Watford Observer, Councillor Day said: "I believe it was the right thing to do.

"I think we need radical change and I think there is going to be big, big change. Everybody is fed up with what is happening.

"If you think about it politics affects everybody. Whether you vote or don’t vote it affects everybody in the county and I honestly believe in the 2015 General Election the big issue will be immigration. My belief is we need stricter controls.

"I also don’t believe in the EU. Why should they dictate to us?"

Councillor Day, who quit the Conservatives last year and spent a period as an independent, has previously stood as a Tory candidate in the Three Rivers ward of Oxhey Hall.

In 2011 she came a close second to the Liberal Democrats, losing by just by 41 votes. She then stood for the district council in the same ward in 2012 but this time the Lib Dems won with an increased majority of 203.

In 2012 UKIP also fielded a candidate in Oxhey Hall and came fourth with 69 votes.

Councillor Day, 58, who works for a London council, said she had no animosity towards her former Conservative colleague and her decision had been informed by national policy concerns.

She also said she still held Watford’s Conservative MP Richard Harrington in high esteem.

She added: "I could not go along with it any more - with their policies. We were promised a referendum and he (the Prime Minister David Cameron) broke that promise and we won’t get it until 2017.

"No offence to Richard Harrington, I have got nothing against Richard."