A new political party has announced it will field a candidate at this May’s local elections.

The Patriotic Socialist Party says it will stand for the Kirkburton seat to be vacated by long serving Tory Clr Christine Smith.

The candidate is 19-year-old villager, Lee Woods, who is the Dewsbury Constituency Branch Organiser for the party.

He said: “For the past two years I have been working with several charities such as Barnardos, Childline, MindFull, FutureYou, In A Muddle and Beatbullying, which are all charities of which help the most vulnerable in society.

“I feel this will help me as I have a deep understanding of the most vulnerable in society and feel this could benefit my ward.

“I will be standing as a voice of the local community ensuring their voices are heard especially on a local level and anticipate that if the party grows rapidly in the constituency that a candidate will be put forward to contest a seat in the House of Commons in the general elections in 2015.”

The Patriotic Socialist Party is positioning itself as a high tax UK-focussed party that champions workers’ rights.

Its website reveals a number of policies, radically different from more established political groups.

They include the introduction of National Service for all 18-year-olds for a period of one year in either military or civilian services, the legalisation of marijuana, the scrapping of foreign aid and the re-nationalisation of the railways and energy companies.

The party also proposes a number of changes to taxation and workers’ rights, including a tax-free allowance equivalent to that of the national living wage.

It also wants to re-introduce the 10% tax bracket and the 50% tax bracket for those earning over £200,000, along with raising VAT to 25% and introducing a mansion tax of 1.5% on any property worth £2m or more.

It wants to allow businesses 20 employees or fewer, to benefit from the same tax-free allowance on their profits as individuals receive for their income.

Other plans include compulsory “Citizen Classes” for children aged between 14 and 16, cutting the salaries of all MPs by 25% and increasing funding to the UK Border Agency for detecting and deporting illegal immigrants.

Some of the local issues Mr Woods says he will take up include opposing plans to charge residents for parking, encouraging the development of unused council land, improving the enforcement against parking on pavements, and developing schemes to get the long-term unemployed back in to work.