A former Conservative MP who defected to the Liberal Democrats has urged Wantage Tory candidate Robert Jackson follow her example.

Emma Nicholson, who is now a Lib Dem peer and MEP, urged Mr Jackson, a Europhile, to be "bold and resolute" and switch parties.

Robert JacksonDuring a pre-election campaigning visit to Wantage, Baroness Nicholson said Mr Jackson was increasingly out of line with the Conservative leadership and its reluctance to join the Euro.

She said: "He will find it a highly satisfactory solution as his thoughts will be in line with what he says for the first time for a very long time."

Baroness Nicholson was born in Oxford and educated along with her three sisters in St Mary's School in Wantage. She hit the headlines six years ago while switching parties while MP for West Devon.

Mr Jackson said her suggestion that he changed parties was "mischief-making", adding: "Parties are tribal things and I hold a tribal affiliation to the Conservative Party."