LABOUR has hit out at the selection of three “white, fifty-something males” as Conservative candidates to contest Parliamentary seats in Brighton and Hove next May.

Former police chief and current Brighton and Hove city councillor Graham Cox was selected by the Conservatives as their candidate for Hove on Wednesday night, joining counterpart Clarence Mitchell for Brighton Pavilion along with Simon Kirby defending his Brighton Kemptown seat.

Warren Morgan, the Labour and Co-operative leader on Brighton and Hove City Council, said: “The selection of three straight, white, fifty-something males as Tory parliamentary candidates in the city contrasts with Labour’s choice of Purna Sen, Nancy Platts and Peter Kyle, who will better represent our diverse and modern city in the House of Commons.”

Coun Cox said: “I was a little bit disappointed at Labour’s response but that’s politics.”

He said Labour did not undertand that diversity was not just about gender, race and sexuality but also about class.

“We increasingly hear from working class residents who no longer feel represented in Brighton and Hove,” he said.