A KEIGHLEY supermarket trolley worker is planning to launch his own political party and contest the next general election.

Leo Robinson is scrapping his Tory membership and instead setting up the Yorkshire Tea Party.

And he has drawn-up a 10-point charter, which ranges from axing the HS2 high-speed rail link to legalising cannabis for medicinal use and downgrading marijuana to a Class C drug.

But before 36-year-old Mr Robinson can go to the polls and battle for the votes of the Keighley and Ilkley electorate, he needs to raise a £500 deposit.

"I have been a member of the Conservatives since 2011 and was in favour of the coalition but it has fallen apart," says Mr Robinson, who lives in Church Street and works at the nearby Morrisons store.

"I'm concerned with the current political scene. I am becoming aware of a lot of hidden agendas in government that I want to expose.

"My aim is to provide voters with an alternative.

"I need a treasurer and to set-up a bank account, but I'm serious about this.

"I thought the choice of name for the party would stick in people's minds. But also it produces the imagery of drinking tea and waking up, in the sense that supporting the Yorkshire Tea Party and social activism to secure our goals is a process of waking up to what is really going on around us behind superficial political appearances."

Mr Robinson admits there has been a mixed initial reaction to his initiative.

"Some people have been very positive and signed-up to the charter and I have received constructive criticism from others," he said.

"I can learn from what people are saying, it's all useful."

He added that the public can find out more by visiting his Yorkshire Tea Party facebook page.

The party's charter in full is: put a stop to benefits sanctions on 'petty things'; reverse privatisation of nursing homes, prisons and other services where corporate partners have a monopoly on provision; a U-turn on 2013-2014 cuts to council budgets that saw Bradford Council scrambling to find £120 million; stop HS2 from London to Birmingham and Leeds, which ultimately will increase the wealth gap between rich and poor and see Yorkshire's talented workers commute to the south east; stop the ring-fencing of NHS budgets and scrap foreign aid to rich trading partners; opt out of EU corporate tax rules that see multi-national corporations pay almost no tax on their trading within the UK; legalise cannabis for medicinal use and downgrade marijuana to grade C drug and freeze beer and cigarettes duty; proportional representation at general elections and reforms to party funding laws; no to GMO food imports and the EU-North American trade deal, and investment in wave power first with no fracking in the Yorkshire Dales and only elsewhere as a last resort.