MACHINE gun-toting police officers will be on duty along the seafront from today as a ring of steel encloses the Brighton Centre in advance of the Labour Conference.

The party’s annual event will run from Sunday to Wednesday but crash barriers, 7ft metal turnstiles and armed police will all be in place from this morning.

Tonight Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will address a rally at The Level at 6pm and Sussex Police have said they are mindful of marches planned for Sunday, including one in support of the NHS and another in favour of EU membership.

The party returns to Brighton for its annual conference this weekend for the first time in two years after a trip to Liverpool last September.

Attendees will be able to enjoy more than 300 fringe events and meetings organised by the Labour Party itself, plus 100 more at The World Transformed – a four-day festival of politics culture and music organised by left-wing activist organisation Momentum.

Ahead of his conference speech in 2015, when he had been leader for just two weeks, Jeremy Corbyn told The Argus he “loved” Brighton and predicted Labour would “of course” win here in a 2020 election.

He will address the conference on Wednesday afternoon for the first time since the unexpected June election in which the Labour Party gained 30 Parliamentary seats, including that of Lloyd Russell-Moyle who removed Conservative Simon Kirby in Brighton Kemptown.

Sussex Police Superintendent Jane Derrick said of heightened security measures: “Disruption is being kept to a minimum with city centre car parks open as usual and fencing at the front of the Brighton Centre placed to enable people to walk by without having to cross the road. The only planned road closure will be the crescent in front of The Grand hotel.

“Passes and a search will be a condition of entry to the Brighton Centre and people elsewhere may be stopped as part of the overall policing response with several fringe events planned in the city.”

Meanwhile restaurateurs and hoteliers are bracing themselves for the influx of members, delegates and trades unionists.

Nick Mosley, director of the Brighton Food Festival, said: “These conferences are always a big win for the city, people staying overnight spend a lot more than day visitors which is great for the hotel and restaurant sector,

“And the delegates of political conferences do tend to like to let their hair down in Brighton.”