New Party leader squares up to MP Barker

Taking him on at the hustings will be online gambling tycoon Stuart Wheeler, 75, creator of the Trust Party, who lives in a restored 16th century castle in Kent.

Trust aims to restore faith in Parliament and MPs, and sweep away the sleaze that has bedevilled the mainstream parties.

Mr Wheeler wants an end to second-home allowances and instead suggests MPs travelling to Westminster be allotted hotel rooms instead.

He also says MPs should not complain their 65,000 salary is too low, since it puts them in the top five per cent of UK earners, even before expenses.

Mr Wheeler is passionate about cleaning-up the system and wants to offer voters a means of expressing their disgust at what has been going on at Westminster.

"They cannot do so when the only choice they are offered is between equally tainted, equally shameless parties, " he declared.

"This scandal is not going to be solved by the people who caused it in the first place."

Though never having met Greg Barker and "having no grudge against him", he has singled out the Shadow Climate Change minister and Cameron aide as his target.

He believes Mr Barker has failed to answer critics who accused him of pocketing 320,000 from the sale of a Pimlico flat bought with help from taxpayers.

Both men are multi-millionaires. Mr Wheeler said: "I'm not looking for office or a job, so I'm under no pressure to toe a party line and I can say what I think."

Now that his campaign is under way, he is opening a Trust Party office in Bexhill and will be spending time talking to constituents.

"I know Battle has issues over parking and Bexhill with plans for its seafront, but I aim to dig much deeper and reflect people's true opinions on such things." While Mr Wheeler concentrates on East Sussex, fellow Trust candidate Douglas Taylor will take on Scottish Nationalist MP Pete Wishart in Perth.

Mr Wishart was asked to repay 1,632 after a duplicate claim for flat rental and a utility bill came to light in a check on his expenses.

The Trust Party also hopes to have a candidate standing in Wales for the General Election, widely expected to take place on May 6.

Other elements in the party's manifesto include exposure of false claims over global warming, promoting marriage, improving treatment for wounded British troops, curbing European Union powers and ending the torture of terror suspects. Ironically - given that he is taking on a top Tory - Mr Wheeler once gave 5 million to the Conservatives: Britain's biggest ever single political donation.

But he was expelled from party ranks last year after giving 100,000 to the anti-European UK Independence Party, UKIP.

Mr Barker said: "Most of my constituents will have never have heard of this City gambling tycoon, who lives in a castle in Kent and who was thrown out of the Conservative Party last year by David Cameron, but he is free to stand wherever he pleases.

"He is quite right in one respect: MPs expenses are an important issue and we need to see that rot-and-branch reform is fully implemented. However, it is absurd that he has entered this election on a 'clean up politics' ticket by making a number of hugely misleading and frankly untrue claims about me, which completely discredit his whole campaign.

"Mr Wheeler is a notorious right wing maverick, who enjoys pumping vast amounts of money into the political establishment. However at this election I think my constituents are going to be more concerned about their priorities, rather than Mr Wheeler's private agenda.

"They want to know how they are going to keep their jobs in tough economic times, rebuild their savings, stop Labour's debt crisis driving up their mortgage payments and how we are going to improve our local health service.

"Then there is stopping landfill in Bexhill, saving the link road from Labour's axe, improving the A21 and protecting train services to London. These are the really important issues for our area."