THE new Vectis Party has launched a video to introduce itself.

The video features treasurer Barry Hailstone, leader Daryll Pitcher, Graham Perks — already an IW Council member — and Julian Harris.

Mr Pitcher stood as a Brexit supporting independent candidate in the recent General Election, and previously stood for UKIP. 

The video outlines that Vectis Party is a 'proper political party' that cares about the Isle of Wight.

A manifesto will be released before the council elections, which are scheduled for May.

Mr Pitcher told the County Press: "As you will understand trying to do an official party launch during a national lockdown is not the easiest of things.

"What we have done is create a video which we hope replicates to some extent what would normally happen at a press conference.

"To add to our problems the full lockdown came into effect before all the videos had been gathered in and so some are unfortunately just audio files overlaid with photographs. Given the circumstances it was the best we could manage."

The main issues the party is interested in is Covid-19 and the impact of people travelling freely to the Island, the floating bridge, and housing for Islanders.

The video is live on YouTube (see below).

The party can also be found on Twitter and Facebook, and on the website vectisparty.org