DENNIS Hobden became famous overnight as a result of the closely fought 1964 general election.

The Brighton Labour councillor was facing Tory MP David James in Brighton Kemptown, a seat which had been Conservative since its formation 14 years earlier.

Hobden won the seat by seven votes after seven recounts. He helped give new Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson a three-seat majority over the Tories who had ruled nationally for 13 years.

There was little doubt that students at the red brick Sussex University contributed towards the win. So did the propensity of David James to go hunting for the Loch Ness Monster.

But the biggest factor was Hobden himself. He was extremely well known in the resort as a hard working councillor not afraid to speak his mind.

During his six years as the first Labour MP in Sussex, he became a reporters’ dream. There was seldom a day when he was not in the news.

He called for closer links between Britain’s Labour government and the Soviet Union. He complained that an MP’s salary was impossible to live off when it was his sole source of income.

Bravely he came out in favour of the proposed Brighton Marina, believing it would bring prosperity and jobs to Brighton while many colleagues did not.

Hobden remained a councillor even though he was an MP. When defeated in Warren ward, which covered a great slab of Kemp Town plus Woodingdean, he popped up again in the safe seat of Falmer which included North Moulsecoomb.

An Argus survey showed that 98 per cent of people knew who he was, a remarkably high figure. But he was almost impossible to ignore.

Hobden was born in Robert Street, opposite the eventual Argus offices and press. He worked for the Post Office in a town which was its south eastern headquarters.

He worked his way up through the union to become a Labour councillor and leader of the opposition.

Hobden knew he might not last long as an MP and an early warning sign in 1966 was that Tory candidate Andrew Bowden kept the Labour majority under 1,000 even though nationally there was a landslide.

And in 1970 Bowden, who had picked up a tip or two from his opponent, won Kemptown quite comfortably.

Hobden had two more tries for Parliament in the 1974 elections but lost each time to Bowden. Instead he concentrated on being a councillor. He was given the rare honour, for a Labour councillor, by the Tories of being the Mayor.

Slowly Labour gained ascendancy so that it 1986 it had a majority for the first time in 130 years. Hobden, by now an elder statesman, was there to give wise advice.

He died aged 75 in 1995, just too early to see Kemptown fall again to Labour, this time through another councillor, Des Turner.

Hobden was a true son of Brighton and knew every street in the town. He was a great public speaker, quickly able to adapt his speech to the mood of the occasion.

And although he looked like a serious politician which indeed he was, there was always a glint of mischief in his eyes.