A FORMER candidate for UKIP has said that the test of an emergency alarm system on mobile phones will “ruin” St George’s Day.

Millions of phones across the UK are due to sound off an alarm at 3pm on April 23 as the government tests a new system designed to alert people to dangerous or life-threatening situations.

Phones equipped with 4G and 5G will be triggered for around ten seconds, with users able to swipe or click the message before using their phones as normal.

However, the leader of the socially conservative Heritage Party – former UKIP candidate David Kurten – has said he does not support the test because it will “ruin” St George’s Day.

Appearing on GB News, Kurten – who previously rejected the Covid-19 vaccine and claimed the disease was “no worse than a normal flu season” – was asked whether he supported the testing of the new alarm system.

“No, it’s terrible. It’s ridiculous. It’s such an intrusion into people’s everyday lives.

“It’s going to happen on a Sunday afternoon when a lot of people are going to be relaxing with their families.

“It’s also going to be St George’s Day, which is England’s national day, of course. It’s going to ruin that day for our country.”

When pressed on why he felt this way, Kurten said: “It’s really Orwellian. It’s imposing a new system on us and you don’t know where this is going.

“We’ve had the last three years of lockdowns and all this kind of coercion [and] fearmongering and people are very disturbed by that.

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“I think this is just another example of the government doing something that is going to increase the level of fear in the general population.”

Kurten, a chemistry graduate of the University of St Andrews, left UKIP in 2018 on account of the party’s anti-Islam direction.

However, he then co-founded the Heritage Party, which describes itself as seeking to reverse “the cultural destruction wreaked by politically correct ideologies and to return to our true traditions and heritage.”