Labour picks candidate to contest Hove at next general election

Labour has chosen charities chief Peter Kyle to stand in Hove at the next general election.

Mr Kyle, 42, who lives in Brunswick in Hove, was selected at a meeting at All Saints Church Hall in Eaton Road, Hove, today (Saturday 15 June).

He is the deputy chief executive of ACEVO (the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations). The organisation represents the men and women running 2,000 of Britain’s biggest charities. He has worked there for almost six years.

Mr Kyle is the chairman of the board of governors at the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA). He is also a governor at the Portslade Aldridge Community Academy (PACA).

He has previously spoken about how he keeps party politics firmly out of his work at the two academies which serve some of the poorer parts of Brighton and Hove.

Mr Kyle beat his long-time friend Simon Burgess, the former leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, and Brighton hospital boss Adrian Twyning.

Having helped run Celia Barlow’s successful campaign in Hove in 2005, Mr Kyle is keen to apply the lessons he learnt.

The next election is expected to be held in 2015. The seat is currently held by the Conservative MP Mike Weatherley.