Katie Hopkins libel-win blogger Jack Monroe to stand in Southend

Jack Monroe won £24,000 damages, plus legal costs, in a libel action against Mail Online columnist Katie Hopkins

A blogger who won damages over defamatory tweets from columnist Katie Hopkins has announced her plans to stand in the General Election.

Food blogger and activist Jack Monroe has yet to state which party she would represent or which of two Essex seats she would contest.

However, she pledged to "do the best for the most people".

Last month Ms Monroe successfully sued Ms Hopkins over two tweets published in 2015.

Mr Justice Warby also ordered Ms Hopkins - a columnist for the Mail Online - to pay an initial £107,000 towards the campaigner's legal costs within 28 days.

He ruled that the tweets in May 2015 asking Ms Monroe if she had "scrawled on any memorials recently" had caused her "real and substantial distress" and she was entitled to "fair and reasonable compensation".

Ms Monroe, from Leigh-on-Sea, said she was still "crunching" as to whether to contest the Rochford and Southend East or Southend West seat.