A statement about Brighton Kemptown

I’d like to pay tribute to Lloyd Russell-Moyle who has been our MP since 2017 and who I am proud to call my friend.

Following his suspension, I was asked by some local members to stand in Brighton Kemptown. They felt that as someone who had previously been selected by members; had been a local Councillor here for five years; had good local name recognition and had halved the Tory majority in 2015, that I was best placed to win the seat. I spoke to Lloyd and put myself forward to be Brighton Kemptown’s candidate with his support.

Everything moved very quickly yesterday and I was pleased to be offered an online interview at 2.40pm.

It was disappointing afterwards to find out that during my interview, Michael Crick had Tweeted out that Chris Ward would be the successful candidate.

I have forwarded the Tweet to the General Secretary of the Labour Party and I trust that there will now be an investigation to ensure the fairness of the process.

It’s important to remember that these decisions affect a wider group of people. Had I been selected I would have kept on all of Lloyd’s team who now face losing their jobs and their livelihoods.

I’d like to thank all the local members and the local, regional and national trade unions that took the time to have conversations yesterday and who offered me their support.