A British National Party member has thrown his hat into the ring for the Gospel Oak by-election.

Steve Dorman, from Somers Town, has contested Hampstead Town and Kentish Town wards in the past and is now set to challenge for the vacant Camden Council seat.

Mr Dorman, a former builder, has pledged to fight for better services for the disabled after he was rendered wheelchair-bound by illness.

He is also campaigning for more money for health services and the Royal Free Hospital.

The 65-year-old said: “I have got nothing to do with racism, I am not anti anything really. Despite what some of the papers say we are not all fascists.”

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition has also put forward a candidate to run for the seat.

John Reid, from Lamble Street in Gospel Oak, has been named on the running card for the party.

He will be up against Labour’s Maeve McCormack, Conservative candidate Leila Roy, Liberal Democrat Laura Noel, the Green party’s Constantine Buhayer and BNP member Mr Dorman to fill the seat vacated by Cllr Sean Birch who resigned from the council for “family reasons”.

Voters will go to the polls on March 14.