A HAMPSHIRE MP has revealed she hopes to stand as a Conservative candidate in the next general election after effectively being expelled from the party.

This comes after the MP for Romsey and Southampton North, Caroline Nokes, cast a rebel vote by backing a motion to delay Brexit until January 2020.

Ms Nokes said: "I am appealing the removal of the Conservative whip. I very much hope to stand as the Conservative candidate in the next General Election, whenever that may be."

Chairman of the Romsey and Southampton North Conservative Association, Nick Adams-King, said: "There are quite strong views both ways about Caroline.

"There are a number of people who are very cross about the way she has behaved, as people feel she should have backed the Government.

"However, there are many people who feel she has been very poorly treated."

He added: "The decision as to whether the whip is returned to her or not is down to the Chief Whip or the Prime Minister. We had already reselected her as our candidate and we did that in 2017, because we did not know how quickly an election would come along.

"We are still happy to have her and we have not begun to look for another candidate."

As previously reported in the Romsey Advertiser, when asked how Ms Nokes felt after she had the party whip removed on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show, she said it was "absolutely gutting".

She added it felt as if she had "been given a real kick in the teeth".

Ms Nokes voted three times in Parliament to leave the EU with a deal and felt "Parliament needed time to scrutinise and debate the current situation", according to the MP.

She stressed her constituents would be worse off under a no-deal Brexit and their futures mattered more than her own as a Conservative MP.

A spokesperson for Ms Nokes previously denied she had been sacked from the party and said the removal of the whip from a Member of Parliament means they are “not sitting as a representative of that party”.