Hove MP Peter Kyle and his Labour Party colleagues learnt his fate last night after the Prime Minister Boris Johnson succeeded in calling a general election for Thursday 12 December.
Hove Constituency Labour Party secretary Alison Dean emailed members to tell them that all meetings had been cancelled including the “trigger ballot” meetings scheduled for the coming two Saturdays.
Branches of the local party had been due to vote on whether to trigger a selection contest.
Instead Mr Kyle is now expected to be the party’s candidate again in Hove, having won the seat from the Conservatives in 2015, with a majority of 1,236 votes.
Two years ago he increased his majority to 18,757.
Mr Kyle faces a challenge at next month’s election from Conservative Robert Nemeth, who represents Wish ward on Brighton and Hove City Council.
Councillor Nemeth ran the parliamentary office of the former Tory MP Mike Weatherley who stood down in 2015.
A former councillor Ollie Sykes is contesting Hove for the Greens and the Liberal Democrat’s have selected Beatrice Bass who stood for the council at the local elections.
The Brexit Party has selected a London consultant Andy Wood as its candidate.
In Brighton Kemptown the sitting Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle is expected to defend his 9,868 majority after last night’s cancellation of all party meetings.
His main challengers include Joe Miller, a Conservative councillor in Brighton and Hove and former deputy leader of Lewes District Council.
And his other main challenge is expected to come from Green MEP Alex Phillips, currently the mayor of Brighton and Hove.
Former soldier Graham Cushway is standing for the Brexit Party, Ben Thomas for the Lib Dem’s and one of the newer minor parties Renew has provisionally selected Guy Pratt.
In Brighton Pavilion the Green MP Caroline Lucas has been reselected by her party. Challengers have still to be chosen by Labour and the Conservatives while the Lib Dem candidate will be Paul Chandler.n
Is the Renew candidate Guy Pratt the musician? Having typed that, I have looked further and find that he is. And so, with Beatrice Bass in Hove, it looks as if bass musicians are providing a distinct undercurrent to the Election. Guy Pratt has written an entertaining book.
Guy Pratt tells me that he is not standing after all in Kemp Town. What with the Change fiasco, it looks not to be the time for new parties to make headway. We need proportional representation. Meanwhile, Ladbrokes 5/1 for Labour to win Uxbridge looks a good bet. Those odds could swiftly shorten.
as much as i dislike him, this is probably best to keeping Hove a Labour seat