THE Liberal Democrats and the Green Party are both fielding East Hampshire candidates in the upcoming general election – despite forming a “remain alliance” elsewhere in the country.

The “Unite to Remain” deal has seen the Lib Dems, Greens and Plaid Cymru working together in 60 seats to maximise the chances of pro-EU MPs winning.

While the Greens are standing aside to give the Lib Dems a smoother ride in constituencies such as Winchester, Guildford, Portsmouth South and South West Surrey, the party has said it will contest seats in East Hampshire, Meon Valley, North East Hampshire and Chichester.

This came as East Hampshire’s Brexit Party candidate, Malcolm Bint, was ordered to stand down having just last week announced his candidacy.

On Monday the party’s leader Nigel Farage said candidates would not contest seats won by the Conservatives in 2017.

There had been concern that challenging safe Tory seats could in effect dilute the party’s share of the vote and actually help other parties which are opposed to Brexit.

“Yes, I have been stood down and I’m pretty upset to say the least,” Mr Bint told the Herald.

“I’m uncertain of the logic as I don’t believe I would have split the vote significantly enough to allow a remain party to take the seat from the Conservatives.

“How can it ever be good for democracy in general, and for the East Hampshire constituency, for the incumbent MP never to be challenged?

“We have the absurd situation in constituencies like East Hampshire where Mr Hinds can be certain in the knowledge his seat is safe for as long as he wants it.”

Damian Hinds served as MP for East Hampshire between 2010 and 2019 and is expected to stand – and win – once again next month.

In 2017’s general election, he took 64 per cent of the vote, securing a comfortable majority of 25,852.

Second place went to Labour which received 17 per cent of the vote, ahead of third-placed Lib Dems who managed 15 per cent.

Previous results in 2015 showed a similar picture, with UKIP coming second and Lib Dems third.

A spokesman from the East Hampshire Green Party said that while the group supports the sentiment behind Unite to Remain, bowing out of the vote would not make sense in this constituency.

“We believe that, in East Hampshire, the extraordinary circumstances around Brexit do not justify denying voters the opportunity to support us,” the spokesman added. See upcoming editions of the Herald for a full break-down of local candidates and their views on why they believe they deserve your vote.