Ex Marine aircraft technician Danny Mitchell founded the UK Veterans and People’s Party (Picture: Mercury)

Veterans across the UK have joined together to form a political party that has swelled to 8,000 members in just a month to run in the next general election – and claims to be at ‘war with the politicians’.

Chairman Danny Mitchell, an ex-military aircraft technician, founded the UK Veterans’ and People’s Party with six other veterans in mid-May after becoming disillusioned by how politicians were campaigning during the election.

Danny believes ‘career politicians’ have not done enough with their lives to understand what needs to be done to ‘fix’ Britain – whereas he believes veterans have.

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The party plans to stump up candidates across the UK during the next election and their policies include slashing politician’s salaries and a tougher stance on immigration using a points-based system.




Other key policies include deprivatising the NHS and discounting pharmaceutical drugs so that patients get the medication they need easier and cheaper.

Mr Mitchell, who served with The REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) as an Aircraft Technician and Mechanic, from Haydock, Merseyside, said: ‘The British forces, since their establishment in 1707 have become renowned as world leaders in conflict around the globe.

‘This time we consider it is a war with the politicians. We will take it to their door and show them first hand what we’re made of. Courage, honour and integrity.

‘I think that what we are doing is based on logical and common sense.

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‘Everybody will be treated with respect, there will be openness, we will listen to everybody. We will honour our forefathers and be tolerant to all religions.

‘We have been working on our manifesto, which will likely be ready in around four weeks, and my colleague Damian McAndrew has been working on education reform and political reform.’

The UK Veterans’ and People’s Party have vowed to support Trident as a nuclear deterrent, a topic that prompted heated debate during the recent general election.

However they said they would support a worldwide nuclear amnesty if it was ever agreed.

One of the party’s more controversial policies is another ‘deterrent’, the death penalty, which Mr Mitchell claims 95 per cent of the party support, particularly in light of current events, to hold terrorists accountable for their actions.

Mr Mitchell said: ‘Everybody in the military understands punishment. If you do something wrong, your punishment will be equal.

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‘If you take someone’s life then yours may be taken too. I’d say 95 per cent of our members [are for bringing back to death penalty]. It’s a deterrent like nuclear missiles – it doesn’t have to be used.

‘Just because I have an 8ft sledge hammer in my shed doesn’t mean I need to use it.

‘Imagine you are Michael Adebolajo who killed fusilier Lee Rigby. The man consciously decided what he was going to do so it’s justifiable that he would lose his life too.

‘If [capital punishment] is carried out in a humane way, it’s over and done in a minute – lethal injection, hanging.’

Going back to the party’s roots, Mr Mitchell also touched on the treatment of veterans in the UK, branding it a ‘sham’, and vowed to honour them as one of the key principles of the party’s policy.

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Mr Mitchell said: ‘No matter how you look at it, the British forces are the only forces in the world to have never lost a war.



‘The [treatment of] the military forces is a sham. When we leave the army, they shake our hands, give us a pat on the back and say there you go.

‘The British government do not care. In America, the government can’t bend over backwards enough for their veterans.

‘However, we do not believe that the fact that we are veterans will affect our leadership in any way.

‘Veterans accept a natural chain of command, as will like-minded civilians. Any post within our party will be gained by skillset, this may mean it is filled by a civilian or a veteran.

‘The best person for the job will get the job. With one voice, we will stand united.

‘However, the fact that the Party has been founded by veterans may unnerve some politicians who may have sent their new colleagues in the house into dangerous situations in the past.’

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Strongly against ‘career politicians’ who ‘go to university with the intention of becoming politicians’, the UK Veterans’ and People’s Party has pledged to slash politicians’ wages, hold them accountable for their actions and fix things using ‘common sense and plain English’.

Mr Mitchell said: ‘Current politicians and the sham that is the government are all in it for themselves.

‘They go to university with the intention of becoming a politician. They think what’s gone on before them is acceptable.

‘From my point of view, if you want to fix something, you need to understand why it’s broken.

‘I’m an ex-marine aircraft technician and I have spent 20 years fixing stuff that’s broken. That same logical process is the only way you can fix anything.


‘These politicians don’t understand how to fix things because they’ve never had to fix anything before.

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‘All politicians need to be held accountable for their actions.’One key focus of the party is to reorganise the NHS, with a plan to cut micromanagement and bring back matrons on hospital wards.

Mr Mitchell said: ‘We would like to see cuts in senior management roles and matrons back on wards rather than being office based.

‘We’re also keen to see discounts on pharmaceutical drugs.

‘The ambulance service is currently graded as an ‘essential’ service and we’d also plan to see this upgraded to an ’emergency’ service. This would be centrally-funded in order to relieve financial strain on the NHS.

‘If we get into power, we will overhaul the NHS and deprivatise it. It has been stripped apart to its bare bones.

‘Until career politicians started pulling the NHS apart, it worked perfectly well for 15 to 20 years.’

John Graham, the PR officer for UK Veterans’ and People’s Party, said: ‘We have started our political party to make a change in this country.

‘The politicians just won’t listen anymore and that’s why we as veterans have gone down this route.

‘We now have five years to build the party to be in a position to have candidates in next general election.’