An evening with Johnny Mercer

Join former Cabinet minister Johnny Mercer, as he chats about his new memoir, No Way to Run a Country, and reveals what Westminster and government is really like . . . and why, for all our sakes, we need to see change.

Johnny, who fought in Afghanistan in 29 Commando Regiment, was fired up with anger at the poor treatment of veterans by successive governments. Determined to do something about it, in 2015 he stood for election in his beloved city of Plymouth. This political outsider was on a mission to change the country.

Johnny’s experiences in Westminster veer from hilarious to infuriating as he refuses to accept the gap between what governments say and what they do. As a result he is threatened, briefed against and sacked as a minister – twice! Politics is a blood sport, whatever your party.

He sees a system riven with infighting, incompetence and inertia, struggling through Brexit, the fall of Afghanistan and numerous self-inflicted crises. There are many good MPs who deserve better. The public certainly does.

As the outsider becomes the insider, he succeeds in creating the UK’s first Office of Veterans’ Affairs and introduces legislation to protect their rights and service. But for Johnny, who has his own daily battle with crippling OCD, the long fight comes at a cost.