With campaigning for the General Election under way in the Chippenham constituency we meet the Green candidate.

GROWING vegetables at her farm in Box is a far cry from the political goings-on at the House of Commons, but one Green Party candidate Tina Johnston is ready for.

For the past 11 years the mum-of-two, who lives in Church Fields, South Wraxall, has been supplying homegrown organic vegetable boxes to nearby villages, but she has put aside her spade and the gloves have come off so she can focus on being elected as MP for Chippenham.

“If you had told me I would be doing this at Christmas I wouldn’t have believed it,” Ms Johnston said, “It’s a very new thing for me from my world of growing vegetables, but I have loved it.”

Ms Johnston, 49, got into politics from a young age, despite joking the closest her family were to being interested in the Government was her father reading the Daily Express when she was a child.

“I’m very into animal rights,” she said, “I was a hunt saboteur in my youth and also very interested in the anti-nuclear protest – I even visited Greenham Common when I was younger.”

Ms Johnston was brought up in Bath and attended what was Chippenham Technical College to do her GCSEs. It was there she learnt to be a riding instructor and when she was 23 she became an allotment gardener, which inspired a passion for growing produce.

While saving up to buy her farm in Box she lived in a barge on the Kennet & Avon Canal.

“It has always been a dream to live and work on the land,” she said.

“Box Valley is one of the most beautiful parts of the country as far as I’m concerned. I love the countryside and that is what I love about Wiltshire.”

Ms Johnston also admits she is not afraid to speak her mind, she added: “I have a very strong opinion on many things that are very important. I never sit on fences, I’m a farmer – I have barbed wire fences.”

Fuelled by a healthy diet she has been taking the election in her stride and if elected her three priorities for the Chippenham constituency would be to tackle poverty in Melksham, traffic problems in Bradford on Avon and the controversial The Range warehouse in Chippenham, which she opposes.

She said: “Without a doubt I am Green through and through – I have always been. All their policies I absolutely believe in 100 per cent.

“If you genuinely want to get change you’ve got to vote for it and we’ve had ‘same as, same as’ politics for far too long.”

FACT FILE

Age: 49

Address: South Wraxall

Occupation: Farm owner

Marital status: Single

Children: Harvey, 25 and Grace, 15

Standing in Chippenham are:

Michelle Donelan (Conservative);

Duncan Hames (Liberal Democrat);

Tina Johnson (Green);

Andy Newman (Labour);

Julia Reid (UKIP)