The eccentric politician Lord Toby Jug - Brian Borthwick - has died, the Hunts Post can confirm.

Lord Jug, a veteran of the political circuit, stood against top politicians at general elections across the country over the years and was the leader of the Eccentric Party of Great Britain. He passed away yesterday (Thursday, May 2).

He made the headlines in March when he launched an appeal to find his lucky leopard skin jacket which he had left on a train. The jacket had been given to him by the late founder of the Monster Raving Loony Party, Screaming Lord Sutch, in 1997.

Lord Jug played guitar for Screaming Lord Sutch, who founded the Official monster Raving Loony Party, and was a leading light in the party after the death of his mentor.

Jug himself was the former leader of the Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire branch of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, serving as the party’s media officer and a prospective parliamentary candidate, until being expelled from the party in 2014.

In May, 2014, Lord Jug, whose birth name is Brian Borthwick, spoke candidly to The Hunts Post about his problems with alcohol.

He remembered being taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, in Cambridge.

“I was told that I was lucky to be alive,” he said.

“You don’t think about paying for food as all of your money is used to buy alcohol. I spent a week at Addenbrooke’s recovering and they told me I was lucky.”

In the 2015 General Election, he contested the London constituency of Conservative MP Boris Johnson. He polled 50 votes.

In his typical flamboyant style, he said he planned to introduce laws giving all criminals gallstones until they were good; spoons should be demonised to make them cool to deter knife crime and young people would be required to read a book for every 10 selfies they took

He had planned to stand in the 2017 General Election and in the race for the mayor of Cambridgeshire, as well as Huntingdonshire District Council, but his mother was taken ill and he pulled out.

Lord Toby played guitar for Screaming Lord Sutch, who founded the Official monster Raving Loony Party, and was a leading light in the party after the death of his mentor.

A split with the loonies led to Lord Toby starting his own political party the Eccentric Party of Great Britain.