A FORMER doctor turned vicar is standing for Parliament for the seventh time and says ‘it isn’t about winning’.

Voters in the marginal Edgbaston seat will see the name of Dick Rodgers and his own Common Good Party on their ballots when they go to the polls on June 8.

Mr Rodgers, a Church of England clergyman, first hit the headlines in the 2004 European election when he paraded around with a home made missile on the back of his bike.

He has stood in six Parliamentary elections including in Northfield, Hartlepool, Newark and Dunfermaline and West Fife as well as a West Midlands European Parliament election (in which an impressive 8,650 people voted for him) and never once retained his deposit.

And he can often be seen strolling around Birmingham with one of his trademark banners strapped to his back or bicycle.

Brummie vicar Dick Rodgers on the campaign trail in Newark in 2014

Mr Rodgers said: “For me, participating in the political process isn’t about winning, it’s about the excitement of taking part and about getting my ideas across to the public.”

He said the best possible result would be to secure five per cent of the vote and keep his £500 deposit.

And has rejected joining a more established political party to achieve his aims.

“I’m trying to do something different, I’m trying to find an outlet for my ideas. What is needed in this country is a challenge.

“A way is needed of seeing Britain as having a collective role in the modern world so that each person could see themselves as part of a team that is achieving something.

“If we all play a part in that project then the country would be much easier to govern.

“If you look at Britain during the last war, there was a widespread perception that everybody was playing a specific role in a common mission and people were willing to accept that role – even if their own role wasn’t particularly glamorous or substantial.

“ And I think that’s the sort of ethos we should be looking for today. I don’t think that electoral success in itself is essential for what I’m trying to do.”

His campaigns have included calling for curbs on debt and an end to the excesses of banks, calling out world leaders and big business over their support for various corrupt regimes and backing for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

“Shortly after the first Gulf War, I spent some time working as a doctor in Northern Iraq as part of a church backed mission,” he said. “Things were pretty bad there.”

During his visit, Dick made friends with local Iraqis and it was from these conversations that he had come to see the regime in Baghdad as worthy of destruction.

* The other parliamentary candidates standing in Edgbaston are Preet Gill (Labour), Colin Green (Liberal Democrat), Alice Kiff (Green), and Caroline Squire (Conservative)