Brexit Party candidate lives in Australia

LONDON: A Brexit Party candidate in Britain’s election next month has raised eyebrows after it emerged he lives more than 9,000 miles from the seat he is contesting.

Ed Punchard, a documentary filmmaker, is listed as residing “in Australia” on nomination forms for the constituency of Tynemouth in northeast England. He lives in Fremantle, near Perth, in western Australia, but originally hails from Devon in southwest England.

Punchard told a local newspaper in Tynemouth, where campaigning is under way, that he plans to buy a house there if elected on December 12. “My current address is Australia but my wife and I are in Tynemouth and looking to buy a house here,” he told The Chronicle.

“We are dedicated to the place and plan to be here on a full-time basis,” the candidate added, arguing that showed “how strongly I feel about representing the people of Tynemouth”. Punchard has links to the region after working in the North Sea oil and gas industry.

He reportedly survived the world”s worst offshore oil rig disaster on board the Piper Alpha, which exploded off Aberdeen, northeast Scotland, with the loss of 167 lives. The candidate moved to Australia following the tragedy and is now managing director of Prospero Productions, a Fremantle-based independent documentary production company.