A LABOUR councillor has survived a candidate selection meeting after what he calls an “anxiety-provoking” time.

Having represented North Portslade since 2015, Brighton and Hove city councillor Peter Atkinson was chosen on Thursday to stand again in elections next May.

This was despite efforts by Momentum to replace him with former Green Party member James Ellis.

Cllr Atkinson, who also works as a mental health nurse for the Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust, said he was “relieved and proud” with the result.

He said: “I am relieved that it’s over, after a worrying and anxiety-provoking time. It has been unpredictable.

“I’m also proud that local members have put their trust in me again.

“Labour is a broad church, but it’s time we started singing from the same hymn sheet.

“We’ve got to find ways of working together for the common good to get elected under the Labour banner.”

The candidates for next May’s local elections have been decided now for all seven of what the local Labour Party considers to be its winnable wards.

Brighton and Hove Momentum encouraged its members to vote for specific candidates in place of sitting councillors, with the exception of Councillor Nancy Platts of East Brighton Ward, who they backed.

As a result, Councillors Daniel Chapman and Adrian Morris of Queen’s Park Ward and Councillor Anne Meadows of Moulsecoomb and Bevendean, were ousted. But nine sitting councillors were reselected to stand in the council elections again.

These are council leader Daniel Yates (Moulsecoomb and Bevendean), Julie Cattell (Preston Park), Nancy Platts (East Brighton) Jackie O’Quinn (Goldsmid), Tracey Hill (Hollingdean and Stanmer), and Les Hamilton and Alan Robins (South Portslade).

The other candidates are Momentum-backed. In Queen’s Park, where Cllrs Chapman and Morris were axed, all three Labour candidates are supported by the pro-Corbyn faction.

Former Wish Ward councillor Anne Pissaridou will stand alongside Cllr Atkinson in North Portslade.

Cllr Atkinson said: “I am looking forward to working with Anne.

“If I am elected for a second term, I will be talking to constituents about the things they’ve been asking me to talk about for the last three and a half years.

“Their concerns and aspirations for North Portslade become my agenda, whether that’s the Crest Nicholson development, the Mile Oak Road traffic safety problems or affordable housing and the benefits trap.”.

Claire Moonan of Central Hove Ward will find out her fate on July 31.