A RYEDALE businessman is to stand as an independent parliamentary candidate in the forthcoming election with a Protect Yorkshire from Fracking campaign.

Philip Tate, who lives in Butterwick, with his wife Mary and five daughters, said although he had no experience of government and had stood for no higher office than Thirsk Town Council, he was standing because fracking posed a threat to all those who live and bring their families up in Yorkshire.

He said: “The potential threat to our health and wellbeing is overwhelming if fracking goes ahead as the present Government intends.

“We face supranational oil companies exploiting this area on an industrial scale – someone must carry the torch for Yorkshire, someone must defend our interests – and if no one else will step forward then it is going to be me.”

Philip said that the key to his campaign was standing on a single issue as an independent candidate.

“Fracking is such a powerful threat to our way of life that it requires the intense spotlight of a single issue campaign to illuminate the darker aspects of the process and the government’s relationship with the oil industry,” he said.

“As an independent I am not shackled by party politics. The Conservatives are pursuing an all-out campaign to frack Yorkshire and frack intensively. I do not have to sacrifice Yorkshire’s interests to party loyalty. I am free to make Yorkshire my real concern.”