WHETHER they were banning curvaceous cucumbers, renaming bars of chocolate, straightening out our bananas or renegotiating British fishing rights, in Andrew Spence's view the European Union could not do much right.

Mr Spence, a farmer and haulier, from Leadgate, near Consett, County Durham, felt so strongly that he stood as the UK Independence Party candidate against Tony Blair at the last General Election.

He reckoned Britain's £40bn annual contribution to Europe's coffers would be better spent closer to home.

And as for the single currency, that was the daftest idea of them all.

So it came as something of a surprise when Mr Spence announced last night that he was quitting Britain - for France.

Mr Spence was at the centre of the nationwide fuel protests which nearly brought the country to its knees in 2000.

With the price of fuel edging higher again, he has decided enough is enough.

Mr Spence is in the process of selling the last truck in his haulage fleet.

He said: "We are paying money now just to get out of bed. We have looked at a farm in France where things are cheaper - the cost of fuel here has crippled us.

"The farming industry is all but dead and we've been running down the number of trucks we have over the last two years.

"With haulage in particular, we've seen European competitors coming in who can fill their tanks with fuel at less than a third of the price that we pay and we cannot compete."

Mr Spence said the protests which caused petrol stations to run dry would never be repeated, even if fuel prices continued to rise.

"I've been to meetings with some of the people involved in the original protests, but there is too much apathy."