Jack Monroe announces they will stand for parliament in the general election
Jack Monroe has announced that they will put their name forward to be a candidate for MP in the 2017 general election.
The award-winning author and journalist, who successfully sued Katie Hopkins for libel last month, told their fans on Twitter after a series of posts in which they explained their knowledge of politics.
“I started writing political articles in 2012,” they wrote. “Cookbook in 2014. I’m always ‘in the kitchen’ but I earned my political stripes, fu****s.
“I know having a working class tattooed sweary prick with 4 1/2 GCSEs talking about the economy unsettles some of you. So I’m gonna carry on.
“And what do I know about politics? I know what it’s like to be evicted when your housing benefit is late. I know what it’s like to starve.”
I know politics.
It helps that I am an obsessively analytical researcher.
But politics *made* me.
And by the wayI’m in the bloody kitchen.
— Jack Monroe (@MxJackMonroe) April 19, 2017
They carried on defending themselves from accusations that their campaign is a publicity stunt with anecdotes from their life.
“And what do I know about politics? I know what it’s like to be evicted when your housing benefit is late. I know what it’s like to starve.”
“I know what it is to sit through every local council meeting, desperately trying to understand how people could casually decimate lives,” they added.
Monroe, who identifies as gender non-binary and uses the prefix Mx, tweeted on Tuesday that they “remain a Labour member”.
However, they have not yet clarified if Labour will be the party they stand for.
The author, who lives in Southend, has also not said in which constituency they will be attempting to become a candidate.
They have readily admitted they have “misgivings” about Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, which are clear to anyone who reads their Twitter feed.
Who is this person on the BBC saying Corbyn can unite the UK over Brexit? He can’t even unite his own mind about it for gods sake.
— Jack Monroe (@MxJackMonroe) April 18, 2017
In recent days, they have also criticised Liberal Democrats leader Tim Farron, who has said being gay is not a sin, but has not as yet answered whether having gay sex is a sin.
And the Conservative Party has long come under fire from the food blogger.
Conservatives really are the true party of equality. They despise us all absolutely equally. https://t.co/IV1rAlRt2Y
— Jack Monroe (@MxJackMonroe) April 19, 2017
We’re all going to be fucked by the Tories and the NHS is dying on its underfunded arse.
Pass me the pasta and the sugar and the gin, cheers— Jack Monroe (@MxJackMonroe) January 14, 2017
The journalist was awarded £24,000 by the court over Hopkins’ libellous tweets – £16,000 for the first, and £8,000 for the second.
After Theresa May’s announcement of a snap election, Monroe created a 61-track “#GeneralElection2017 playlist including Send In The Clowns, It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine), and Red Lights.
