Brighton Kemptown MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle is to resign his East Brighton seat on Brighton and Hove City Council.
Mr Russell-Moyle, 31, was elected to the House of Commons at the general election in June with a majority of almost 10,000.
He won his parliamentary seat just 10 months after winning a by-election to represent the council ward that includes Whitehawk.
But he has written to fellow Labour Party members to say that a selection timetable has been agreed even though he has not yet resigned.
He and his party colleagues are keen to have a candidate in place when he resigns from the council in the coming weeks.
Mr Russell-Moyle is expected to resign formally in the final week of the year or, at the latest, during the first week of 2018.
The by-election to vote in a new councillor is likely to take place on Thursday 1 February or Thursday 8 February.
The new councillor should then be able to take part in the debate and vote on the council’s budget for the coming year.
Candidates have until next Thursday (14 December) to put themselves forward, with the hustings and selection meeting scheduled for a week later (Thursday 21 December).
Mr Russell-Moyle said: “It is a real honour to represent you as one of your local councillors as well as your newly elected Member of Parliament.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed my time representing my home ward on the council and working with the Labour group to deliver for the people of East Brighton.
“The general election in June was completely unexpected but thanks to the hard work of our members like you, I became your Member of Parliament.
“However, I believe that now is the time to hand over the reins as your local councillor to someone that can dedicate the time and energy to our local area – to someone who has the track record, the passion, someone who know the area like the back of their hand, someone that will support our schools, adult social care, youth work.
“We need the strongest candidate possible if we are to keep up the good work.”
The early favourite to win the selection is Nancy Platts, who stood for the Brighton Kemptown seat at the 2015 general election and for Brighton Pavilion in 2010.
The poor love’s clearly been struggling with the workload: I’ve emailed him on two different occasions since he was elected, asking him to attend upcoming parliamentary debates and vote to pass pieces of legislation about which I felt strongly. I finally received identical copypasted replies on different days this week, apologising for not responding sooner and explaining that “the transition period has been incredibly busy with Lloyd settling into Parliament, locating a constituency office, hiring staff, and dealing with an influx of casework, so we are still working through a backlog of correspondence” and asserting that although he hadn’t attended and voted “due to prior commitments in the constituency”, he would support the bills at future readings.
Clearly his minions are working through emails and sending the same reply regardless of the topic.
It was such a good feeling to see the back of Simon “Swiss Toni” Kirby,but maybe Lloyd’s not up to the job.
Hello Fishwife:
You can see my voting record here http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?id=uk.org.publicwhip/member/41771#divisions where I have attended almost all votes (only missing some votes on Scotland or other issues that don’t directly effect our constituency).
Of course sometimes things done get to a vote (ie they pass unapposed) and when that happens I pledge to vote for it at second abd thrid Reading if I’m in favour despite there not being a vote.
So if you had that much of a workload as an M.P why has it taken you so long to stand aside as a Councillor?
So you’re saying that, in your opinion, the fact that people have died due to the use of excessive restraint in mental health units doesn’t affect our constituency. Thanks for clarifying.
However, I believe that now is the time to hand over the reigns….
So, he was king as well?!
Oops, well spotted. Regal spelling error now corrected!
Interesting that he says the Council has achieved a lot over the past “few” years.
I take it that “few” is more than “two” years – and so Lloyd Russell-Moyle is crediting the Greens with all that they did despite the abuse from cllr Morgan with his disgusting Vote of No-Confidence Motion.
http://www.facebook.com/savehovelibrary
I don’t imagine the timing of Lloyd’s resignation is coincidental. Labour members have just chosen the executive of the new LCF (or Local Campaign Forum). It has a key say in who can put themselves up for election, with local branches usually having the final say. Not surprisingly the LCF in Brighton & Hove is dominated by Corbynites. And Lloyd is a Corbynite himself.
While he is putting himself about the constituency a bit more than Simon Kirby, he does seem to be facing similar issues in terms of keeping his constituents satisfied.
DEAR MR LLOYD RUSSELL BOYLE I AWAIT YOUR REPLY TO MY LETTER WHICH I POSTED ON THURSDAY 18TH JAN 2018 REGARDING A INJUSTICE I HAVE SUFFERED I REMAIN YOURS MR W BYRNE