Former Vassall ward Councillor Kingsley Abrams has applied to become the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidate for the Southwark and Old Bermondsey seat in the 2015 General Election.

Abrams quit the Labour party last week after three decades of membership. He declared that he wanted to keep on campaigning against austerity and cuts – something that he believed was no longer possible to do under a Labour banner.

Abrams has declared:

“It has become increasingly clear that Labour has no narrative that will differentiate it from the Tories. The same local government settlement. The same spending caps and limits. The same rhetoric on unwelcome immigrants. Labour also appears indifferent to the unfairness of many of the current anti-union laws and the Tories’ proposals for several more. I am from the traditional wing of the Labour party and fervently anti-austerity. But it has become increasingly clear that these policies cannot be articulated within the current Labour Party. I haven’t given up. I intend to continue fighting austerity. I have just taken off the shackles.”

Southwark and Old Bermondsey is currently held by Simon Hughes MP of the LibDems. It has historically been a rough battleground between the Libdems and Labour. The Labour party have declared the constituency in the Top 12 of national seats that it needs to win.

The introduction of the democratic socialist Abrams to the election may split the Labour vote. The Libdems polled 21,590 votes in 2010. Val Shawcross fell short for Labour on 13,060. Neil Coyle is trying his luck for the Labour party this time round.

Abrams last served on Lambeth Council in 2013. He topped the vote in the Vassall ward in 2010 with 2,533 votes. A period of unease then broke out within Lambeth Labour. Abrams was suspended by the right wing of the party for opposing the cuts that the Council was pushing through.