Stormzy, Kano, Professor Green and a host of other prominent British artists have thrown their support behind Jeremy Corbyn ahead of the general election and called on people to register to vote before Tuesday’s deadline.

In a letter to the Guardian, Stormzy joins a number of other performers – including Akala, Lowkey, Saskilla, Sharkey Major and Charlie Sloth – in saying they will be voting Labour on 12 December.

The letter, put together by the Grime4Corbyn movement, urges voters to back Labour to “end austerity, rebuild our communities and take back the means to change our lives for the better”.

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“Ending austerity will, for the first time in many of our lifetimes, use the taxes we all already pay into, to reinvest in the housing, youth clubs, community groups and cultural centres being destroyed by the current government,” the letter, drafted by Akala and Lowkey said.

While the signatories said they were “under no illusions about Labour’s own imperial history”, they emphasised that Corbyn “has been one of the few people who has fought against injustice all his political life, from apartheid South Africa to the bombing of Libya”.

Later on Monday, Stormzy underlined the message of the letter, writing on social media: “Don’t sit there and think ‘my little vote ain’t gonna do anything’ - your vote is CRUCIAL. Your ‘one little vote’ can quite literally tip the scale for what will be the most important election of our generation.

“There are several reasons as to why I’m voting for [Corbyn] – I would be here all day if I began to list them… but in my 26 years of life I have never trusted politicians or relied on them to be the bearers of hope and righteous people that we’ve needed them to be.

“And for me, he is the first man in a position of power who is committed to giving power back to the people and helping those who need a helping hand from the government the most.”

The multiple award-winning artist said he thought Boris Johnson was “a sinister man with a long record of lying and policies that have absolutely no regard for the people”.

He added: “I also believe it is criminally dangerous to give the most powerful role in the country to a man who has said that the sight of a ‘bunch of black kids’ makes him ‘turn a hair’, compared women in burqas to letterboxes and referred to black people as ‘picanninnes’ with ‘watermelon smiles’.”

The deadline for voter registration is the end of Tuesday 26 November and the letter to the Guardian is both a call to support Labour and a last-ditch attempt to persuade potential voters to sign up. Young voters heavily skew towards Labour, with 60% of those aged 18-24 voting for Corbyn’s party in 2017, figures showed.

“The opportunity for people-led change can be made possible under a Jeremy Corbyn Labour government. End austerity, rebuild our communities and take back the means to change our lives for the better,” the letter continued.

“Surely, in an election that could transform the livelihoods of many, and be the difference between life or death for many more, life is something worth voting for.”

Securing the backing of Stormzy, one of the UK’s biggest recording artists, is a major coup for the Labour party. After lending his support in 2017, Stormzy was credited in part for the “youthquake” that boosted Corbyn’s party in that year’s election.

His declaration “Fuck Boris”, a line from his number one single Vossi Bop, became one of the most memorable moments of his headline set at Glastonbury this summer, and was later borrowed by the Labour-supporting youth group FckBoris.

But after Stormzy held back from giving FckBoris his explicit backing, and after some of the original Grime4Corbyn artists indicated they would not repeat their support for Labour this year, it was suggested he might also hold off from a public endorsement. In the end, G4C relaunched on Sunday night, with many of the original artists on board.

A separate letter has also been published in which more than 500 artists and musicians – many of them under 40 – pledged their support for Labour. The poet Kate Tempest, the musician Brian Eno, the writers Sophie Mackintosh and Sabrina Mahfouz and the political philosopher Srećko Horvat are among those who called for a Labour victory “not just for the future of the United Kingdom, but as a message to show the world”.

The letter, published in Tribune, said the UK stood at a crossroads. “On one side is the Conservative world of self-preservation, closed borders, spiralling homelessness and poverty, inertia on the climate crisis, privatised education and cuts to arts funding,” they wrote.

“On the other is Labour’s commitment to free movement and ending the ‘hostile environment’ for migrants, a green industrial revolution, protection of workers’ rights, public ownership of key industries, free education, and serious investment in the arts.”