A UKIP councillor has hit back at James Moyies after he defected to join the Tories.

The Echo revealed yesterday that the one-time Southend UKIP and Independent councillor, who started out as chairman of the Thorpe Bay Conservatives, has gone full circle.

Neil Hookway, a UKIP councillor for Foulness and the Wakerings, said: “Residents who voted for him trusted that he would provide an alternative to the out of date binary politics of the past, but now he is re-joining the establishment. Modern politics is more than whether you are blue or red.

“He asserts that we, as voters, should follow his lead and give Teresa May a ‘blank cheque’ to do as she pleases in the upcoming Brexit negotiations.”

“I would have had more respect for James if he had decided to join the Independent Group at Southend Borough Council, as his two former colleagues have done.”