Comics legend, who has voted only once in his life, makes passionate appeal to help defeat ‘rapacious’ rightwing party in general election

He may be an anarchist who has voted only once in his life, but the comics legend Alan Moore is calling on his fans to oppose the “rapacious, smirking rightwing parasites” currently in government and join him in voting Labour.

UK voters may find choosing between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn unappealing, but the comics legend is in no doubt, declaring “some leaders are so unbelievably malevolent and catastrophic that they must be strenuously opposed by any means available”.

Moore, author of Watchmen and V for Vendetta, said that the last time he voted was more than 40 years ago, because he was “convinced that leaders are mostly of benefit to no one save themselves”. But these are unprecedented times, he said, and a victory for the Conservative party in December’s general election would leave Britain without “a culture, a society, or an environment in which we have the luxury of even imagining alternatives”.

The author, who has said that the final issue of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen will be his swansong writing comics, admitted that his vote would be “principally against the Tories rather than for Labour”. But he added that Labour’s manifesto was “the most encouraging set of proposals that I’ve ever seen from any major British party”.

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Moore’s statement was posted on his daughter Leah Moore’s Twitter and Facebook pages, where he called on anyone to whom his work “has meant anything … over the years”, and all those for whom “the way that modern life is going makes you fear for all the things you value”, to exercise their franchise.

“Please get out there on polling day and make your voice heard with a vote against this heartless trampling of everybody’s safety, dignity and dreams,” he said. “A world we love is counting on us. If we’d prefer a future that we can call home, then we must stop supporting – even passively – this ravenous, insatiable Conservative agenda before it devours us with our kids as a dessert.”