Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Plymouth Moor View
Member of Parliament, Veterans’ Minister, Afghanistan Veteran and best-selling author, Johnny Mercer has been an outspoken champion for Plymouth Moor View and our nation’s veterans for almost a decade.
Starting off his professional life Johnny served 13 years in the UK Commandos, serving from the tactical to the strategic level throughout a career across the globe, including multiple combat operations at the height of the Afghanistan conflict.
Unwilling to accept the UK’s treatment of his generation of Military Veterans, Johnny stood as a Member of Parliament in 2015, despite having never voted before. Working on building-sites he self-funded a campaign that saw him win his Plymouth Moor View seat having been given a less than 1% chance by the bookies.
His maiden speech to the House of Commons was acclaimed around the world and marked the start of his Parliamentary career. He served on both the Defence and Health Select Committees, chairing inquiries into historical prosecutions of Servicemen and Women and the misuse of prescription drugs, before campaigning for and subsequently creating the UK’s first Office for Veterans Affairs under Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2019.
Johnny was sacked from Government in April 2021 after refusing to pass legislation that did not protect Northern Ireland veterans from repeated and vexatious prosecutions from the Troubles. He has since campaigned for these Veterans both in London and Belfast.
In 2017, Johnny’s memoirs from his military career We Were Warriors went straight into the Sunday Times Bestseller list. “one of the best accounts of Afghanistan’s latest war. It is one of the great British accounts of close combat, matching Orwell in Catalonia and McDonald Fraser in Burma”
In July 2022 Johnny was appointed Minister for Veterans Affairs attending Cabinet so has successfully managed to create the UK’s first position in Cabinet representing veterans; which now puts the UK in line with other countries such as USA and Australia in how they prioritise veterans care. He was sworn into the privy council and is now the Rt Hon. Johnny Mercer MP.
As of October 2022 the role has been re-affirmed with Johnny in position, tasked with the roll out of the veterans’ ID card, nuclear test medals and ending veteran rough sleeping by Christmas.Under the instruction of the Prime Minister, he has also taken control of resettling Afghans under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), a national role which includes local Afghan families here in Plymouth.
July 2023 saw the Prime Minister appoint Johnny as the cross-government lead for care leavers, a national role with huge benefit to care leavers in Plymouth. Given that veterans and care leavers face many of the same structural challenges, Johnny is well placed to coordinate the Government’s support and make the UK the best country in the world to be a care leaver.
Johnny has been equally busy in Plymouth. He is determined to make Plymouth the best place to live, work and raise a family. Setting out to achieve this, Johnny has secured over £300m in extra funding for Derriford Hospital since 2015; delivered multimillion pound road improvements across Plymouth; secured funding to unlock a new Plymouth railway station; delivered housing redevelopments in Barne Barton and North Prospect; secured Plymouth as one of the first Freeports in the UK, delivering thousands of jobs; and kept Derriford Hospital in the new hospital programme, securing a new hospital by 2028.These are just a handful of the promises that Johnny has delivered on as Plymouth’s voice in Westminster.
Johnny has several ongoing campaigns in Plymouth. He is committed to solving Plymouth’s dental crisis, recently helping the University of Plymouth’s Peninsula Dental School deliver dental appointments for primary school children. Working with Plymouth City Council and local charities such as Path, Johnny has pledged to end rough sleeping in Plymouth and, liaising with Tamar Crossings and local stakeholders, is actively seeking a solution to the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry’s funding crisis.