How Farage’s war hero Brexit Party candidate is a wildlife campaigner and former Oxford historian who spent 10 years in the Royal Marines and now hosts Shark Week on the Discovery Channel
A decorated former commando who fought in Afghanistan is now campaigning to become an MEP for Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party.
Action man James Glancy was among five new candidates unveiled by the new party which is expected to hit the Conservatives and Labour over their failure to deliver Brexit.
Mr Glancy – a retired Captain in the Royal Marines who has since become a TV wildlife presenter – will add credibility and a splash of celebrity to Farage’s new outfit.
Speaking at the party’s event today, Mr Glancy said he was compelled to stand because he felt Britain was facing a ‘crisis’.
He said: ‘The politicians at Westminster, the members of parliament, the lords, right now, are undermining democracy and our leadership is humiliating the British public on the international stage.’
James Glancy (pictured left today) is a retired Captain in the Royal Marines awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for fighting in Afghanistan in 2013 (right at Buckingham Palace)
Mr Glancy fought in three combat tours of Afghanistan when he was a captain in the Marines
He has a loved of diving and is pictured, this year, with a sunken Japanese plane in the Pacific
According to his website, Mr Glancy was taught to dive alongside sharks by a US Navy commander as a child and decided to join the British military.
He studied Modern History at the University of Oxford, where Captained the Blues Varsity Boxing team, before signing up.
He served in the Marines’ version of the SAS, the Special Boat Service, being promoted to Captain, and saw three tours of Afghanistan.
In 2012, he was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross (CGC) for leadership and bravery on the frontline.
Since retiring from the Armed Forces, he has become an environmental campaigner, becoming director of a conservation charity, Veterans 4 Wildlife.
He is currently a host on Discovery Channel’s Shark Week and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
He is pictured training with anti-poaching rangers in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Mr Glancy trained with the Marines and joined their elite SBS unit (pictured training in Belize). Since leaving he has starred in various TV shows including a Discovery Channel show called ‘Sharkwrecked’, where he and Australian veteran Paul de Gelder were marooned in the Atlantic
Mr Glancy has a love of sharks, and presents a show about them on the Discovery Channel
He also starred in a show called ‘Sharkwrecked’, where he and Australian veteran Paul de Gelder were marooned in the Atlantic for 43 hours with no food and no water
On a video he produced for the party, he said: ‘I served in the Royal Marines for over 10 years, operating all around the world, including three combat tours of Afghanistan.
‘I’m afraid to say, coming back home and seeing the British politicians ignore the democratic vote that was delivered in 2016 and then confirmed in the general election, puts us in a humiliating position internationally when we are trying to be one of the world’s leading liberal democracies.
‘I’m proud to be British and proud of our tolerance, our diversity, of our liberal democracy.
‘But the MPs at Westminster right now, they are letting down the British public. We need to send them a message and the only way to do that is to vote for the Brexit Party in the European elections.’
Farage has unveiled a number of candidates for his party, including Annunziata Rees-Mogg, the sister of Tory Brexiteer Jacob, and Claire Fox, a former member of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
He has travelled the world with his work, but says Brexit has made the UK a laughing stock