IN THE run-up to the General Election on May 7, the Standard will be interviewing the candidates vying to represent North Wiltshire in Parliament. To start, Elliot Cass met the incumbent MP, James Gray.

GOING up against James Gray in North Wiltshire is a daunting task. He has been MP for the constituency since 1997 and has increased his majority since he was first voted in.

It is fair to say that it will take either a miracle or a sudden massive shift in public opinion to oust the Scottish-born father-of-three from his seat in Parliament.

So it was no surprise that the Conservative MP was relaxed when I met him in the Lansdowne Arms in Derry Hill near Chippenham.

Indeed, he didn’t even feel the need to boast, as so many politicians do when interviewed before an election... well, almost.

When Mr Gray – who now lives just south of Corsham – told me about the important decisions he has been involved in during his 18 years in Parliament, he was quick to insist that in most cases, credit was not all his.

“When there is an issue, we just have to represent the people and bring pressure to bear. If I pretended that it was something I did that got beer duty down 13 pence, for instance, I would be misleading you,” he said.

“I remember taking the mayor of then Wootton Bassett to see the prime minister. As we walked into the room in Number 10, the prime minister said to her ‘don’t let James start banging on about Lyneham again’.

“I think that shows that local issues can get to people at the highest levels.”

Mr Gray was referring to an RAF base in Lyneham which closed in 2012, and has only just been announced as the new site of a defence training college, after much campaigning by him.

When talking about politics in general, he said that the last five years had changed the public’s opinion on the main parties.

“I will be interested to see what happens this time, as the national polls say that the Liberal Democrats have collapsed, and I expect to see an upswing in the Labour vote,” he said.

The MP said the biggest issues in North Wiltshire which will influence voting were the “excessive development” of new houses on green space and the downfall of high streets, with businesses being replaced by homes.

Mr Gray said that development in rural communities was not always sensible, as new businesses and more houses did not always mean jobs for local people.

He referenced plans to build a new distribution centre for furniture store The Range in Chippenham and the addition of more houses and a Waitrose to Malmesbury.

He said: “You don’t want 1,000 low-grade jobs in North Wiltshire, so I think The Range should go to Swindon or Bristol. I was also strongly opposed to Waitrose. It just means that people don’t use the high street. Malmesbury is the fifth largest town in my constituency and it already has two Co-ops.”

Mr Gray said one of the perks of being an experienced MP was that he is now at the stage of his career where he can choose to rebel against the party, such as when he voted against the war in Iraq in 2003.

He said that the EU was one area where he was prepared to rebel again, insisting that there needed to be a fundamental renegotiation of powers between Brussels and the UK and a referendum on opting out if this was not possible.