A SUPPORTER of Jeremy Corbyn will fight the marginal constituency of Kemptown for the Labour Party at the general election.

Councillor Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who won the right to represent East Brighton on the city council in a by-election last year, will square off against Conservative MP Simon Kirby on June 8.

The result will be one of the most hotly anticipated in the country with Mr Kirby defending a majority of only 690, the ninth-smallest Conservative lead in the UK.

Meanwhile the Green Party which secured more than 4,000 votes there at the last election has agreed to field no candidate to maximise Labour’s chances of unseating the Tory incumbent.

Cllr Russell-Moyle told The Argus: “I think we’ve got a very good chance of winning here.

“We’ve got a very unpopular MP who’s failed to properly speak up about the chaos on our railways, the underfunding of our NHS which is in special measures.

“This is the man who said he’d get our hospital rebuilt, who’d save the Madeira Terraces, and then the government gave us nothing.

“We are a constituency which hasn’t had a campaigning MP for two years, and that’s what we need.”

Nationally the Conservatives are polling up to 19 points ahead of Labour, but the candidate said local issues might decide the seat.

He said: “I’ve been out for the last week in Saltdean and Peacehaven and I haven’t seen Simon Kirby or any Conservative Party posters - but I’ve seen lots of Labour ones.”

He said he would rather be “cautious than boastful” but said he would be “fighting for every street and every voter,” adding “I’m in it to win it”.

The decision by the Kemptown Labour Party came after a day of intense behind-the-scenes negotiations.

Early reports suggested that Centrist and charity chief executive Michelle Thew, 52, would be selected by a selection board which included National Executive Committee members.

But one left-wing veteran of Brighton Labour politics told The Argus: “We weren’t going to stand for that..”

Mr Russell-Moyle, 30, was a youth worker and a UN consultant before moving into professional politics.

He secured ten per cent of the vote when he stood for election in Lewes two years ago but was beaten into fourth place behind the Tories, Lib Dems and UKIP.