A poet and magazine editor is standing as a candidate at the 2015 general election. Tim Wells, editor of Rising magazine, will be standing on behalf of the anarchist group Class War in the Labour stronghold of Hackney North and Stoke Newington, where Diane Abbott will be defending a 14,461 majority. 

Wells said: “I was asked to by Ian Bone, a comrade of old, and an old comrade. I thought 'why not?'. If I'm going to write poems and sit in the pub complaining about toffs I should also do something.”

Class War wants a mansion tax, the closure of public schools and Oxbridge, the nationalisation of industry and “the removal of privateers like Atos from our welfare system”, Wells said.

He added: “I started out many years ago as a ranting poet and the freedom of speech in today’s vibrant poetry scene is still something I find exciting. Even when the poetry is pants.

“Most of us have had a lifetime of disadvantage. Poetry gigs are noticeably more political these days. I don't think there's any unity of action amongst poets, nor that there really should be, but it's good to see ideas being explored and people questioning their social position. Whilst voices are important it's actions that make change.”

In 2010 journalist Suzanne Moore stood against Abbott as an independent candidate and finished sixth, forfeiting her deposit. Wells added: “Hackney certainly has a militant tradition. Stoke Newington has a long history of non-conformism, feminism and radicalism, encompassing people from Mary Wollstonecraft to the Angry Brigade.”