Mark Reckless is not the only a handful of politicians who has served both in the Senedd and Westminster. And the South Wales East AM is unique in having served in both houses for both the Conservatives and Ukip. IAN CRAIG met him in Cardiff Bay to talk about his career so far.

ALTHOUGH he’s a new face in the Senedd, Mark Reckless is no stranger to anyone with an interest in politics.

First elected as a Conservative MP, he later defected to Ukip and was touted as one of the party’s major successes when he successfully defended his seat in a by-election at a time when its public profile was skyrocketing under Nigel Farage.

Although he lost his seat in the 2015 General Election, the following year he was back in office as AM for South Wales East, and earlier this year left Ukip to rejoin his former Conservative collegues.

Born in London, he spent his early childhood in the capital before moving with his family to California, where they lived for about two years before moving back to the UK and living in Yorkshire, and later in South West England.

He said he had been interested in politics for “as long as I can remember”.

“I remember being allowed to stay up late to see Gerald Ford be defeated by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 America election, which I thought was terribly sad and unfair because I very much enjoyed my year or two in California and thought it was very sunny and optimistic, at least compared to England at that time,” he said.

“Since around the time I finished school and went to university I’ve been very strongly against our membership of the European Union.

“I felt we could govern ourselves better than 27 other countries could do for us and all my political life I’ve been campaigning for us to leave the EU, so I was so delighted shortly after my election to the Assembly that we finally succeeded.”

Unsuccessfully standing for Medway in Kent in 2001 and 2005 – the second time coming within 213 votes of taking the seat from Labour – it was in 2010 that he finally won a seat as MP for Rochester and Strood, also in Kent.

But four years later, unhappy with the party’s line on the UK’s membership of the EU, he defected to Ukip, which was then experiencing a surge of prominence under the leadership of Nigel Farage.

“I felt David Cameron wasn’t serious about getting us out of the EU and I feared the referendum campaign would be run in such a way as to keep us in Europe,” he said.

Defending his seat in a by-election triggered by his defection, Mr Reckless became Ukip’s second MP following the election of Douglas Carswell in Clacton just a month earlier. But the next year he lost his seat to his previous party.

He said: “A number of constituents said they were happy to support me locally but not for the national election.

“They perceived the by-election as a more local issue about me, as opposed to the General Election, which was perceived as Cameron against Miliband, and the fear of the SNP making the rest of the UK pay for what they wanted in Scotland.”

He said it was soon after then that he began working as Ukip’s head of policy and was selected to take part in the party’s push in last year’s Assembly Election, in which it won seven seats.

Although questions have been raised around whether the South Wales East AM lives in Wales, Mr Reckless confirmed he, along with his wife and three young children, moved to Caerphilly when he was first elected, and now live in the Canton area of Cardiff.

“For the year prior to the Assembly Election I had a house in Kent where my family were largely based and I split my time between there and Caerphilly,” he said.

“Since August 2016 we’ve lived full time in Wales and my children are at schools locally.

“For a year I rented a house in Caerphilly, but the landlord wanted to take the property back at the end of the term, so I understand how many constituents living in rental sector feel.

“Shortly after that I got a rental house in Canton.”

Although he conceded Canton is outside South Wales East, Mr Reckless said he and his wife were planning on buying a property “in due course”, and were looking across Gwent.

He said he had struggled against a negative perception of Ukip and its policies, with many connecting the party’s anti-immigration stance with racism and xenophobia.

“The majority of members are not racist,” he said. “Wanting to leave the EU and belief in a self-governing democracy is nothing to do with race.

“The immigration debate is largely a matter of numbers and how you integrate people rather than a racial background. But I did find it quite frustrating the number of times things would flair up in the media or elsewhere about a Ukip person who had said something, in some cases unpleasant, in some cases I think, yes, racist.”

Almost immediately after last year’s Assembly election that the new Ukip group was mired in controversy after former Conservative MP Neil Hamilton who had been elected as an AM for Mid and West Wales, snatched the role of group leader from North Wales’ Nathan Gill, assumed by many to be the natural choice to head the group.

Mr Reckless said he was disappointed in the choice, having voted for Mr Gill to lead the group. And less than a year after his election he left Ukip to join the Assembly’s Conservative group – although he has not formally re-joined his former party.

“I felt there was a real opportunity for Ukip following the Assembly Election to build an attractive brand in Wales through the work of the group in the Assembly and I was disappointed that didn’t happen,” he said.

“I decided to leave the group and back what (Welsh Conservative leader) Andrew RT Davies has done in Wales and the leadership he has given the Conservatives here in Wales in a situation where Plaid seems to be palling up to Labour while only pretending to oppose.

“I think it’s really Andrew and the Conservatives who are the opposition to Lab in Wales as Plaid seem to be sucking up to them and Ukip have shot themselves in the foot.”

He added he not formally rejoined the party as there are some members who remained unhappy he had left in the first place.

“Most people in the Conservative Party wanted to leave the EU and I think some people see what Douglas (Carswell) and I did as having helped bring that about,” he said.

“Others feel, in some cases quite strongly, that I should not have stood against the party in the way I did, and I understand and respect those views.”

He said the Assembly’s new tax-raising powers, which will come into force in April, would prove a litmus test for how far people in Wales are prepared to support Carwyn Jones’ government.

“Some people fear they may be made to pay more in tax simply because they live in Wales rather than England,” he said.

“I can see some people potentially questioning this institution and why should they be having different tax from people in England at all.”

He added: “Yes, people are in houses worth between £125,000 and £250,000 will pay less in stamp duty, but people who live in houses worth more than £400,000 – and there’s a fair number of those in Monmouthshire, a rather higher proportion than elsewhere in Wales – will be paying quite a bit more.

“I am not so worried about those individuals necessarily, but the message it sends broadly about Wales and the extent to which we are open for business.”

Mr Reckless said one of the main issues he has been contacted about by constituents since his election is the tolls on the two Severn bridges, and said he was delighted the UK Government had committed to scrapping the charges by the end of next year.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for South East Wales, it really is,” he said.

“The gains for South East Wales are going to be far greater than estimated, I really do think that, and for Newport particularly.”

With Brexit on the horizon Mr Reckless said he was concerned the Labour-run Welsh Government was not properly representing the views and wishes of the people of Wales, who voted to leave the EU.

“In areas like Newport and around Monmouthshire I’m not sure devolution is considered as settled a question as perhaps Labour, Carwyn Jones, and Plaid assume it to be,” he said.

“I would warn them as they pal up with Nicola Sturgeon or act in a way which many people may perceive, rightly or wrongly, as trying to block Brexit, which people in Wales voted for, that they shouldn’t assume that Wales or South East Wales will support what they are doing.”

But he would not be drawn on whether he plans to stand again in the next Assembly Election, scheduled for 2021.

He said: “I can’t, in 2017, yet tell you want I will want to do in 2021.”