Shop that launched a political career THE humble Hove shop that launched the career of the country’s first women cabinet minister has been identified for the first time.

Margaret Bondfield made history in 1929 when she was appointed Minister of Labour by the country's first Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.

But her inspirational rise in politics began in the late 1880s when at the age of 14 she was apprenticed to a shop in Hove.

Until now, the shop’s location has remained a mystery but following an investigation by Peter Kyle, the Labour parliamentary candidate for Hove and Portslade, local party member John Warmington found a Mrs White ladies’ outfitter recorded at 14 Church Road in a street directory for 1888.

The building is now a Londis convenience store and Mr Kyle this week submitted a formal request to Brighton and Hove City Council to install a commemorative blue plaque outside the building.

The campaign was launched at the shop on Sunday when Mr Kyle was joined by Jacqui Smith, the first female Home Secretary who served under Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Mr Kyle said: “How inspirational would it be for young women to walk past this very ordinary building and be able to read the extraordinary story of Margaret Bondfield.

“When you think how conservative Hove was in the 1880s, it’s all the more astounding that it was in this little shop that Margaret, at the age of 14, was exposed to political thinking and feminism and the Suffragette movement.”

Margaret became friendly with customer Louisa Martindale, who had been president of the Women’s Liberal Association in Brighton and Hove and was involved in starting a Brighton branch of the Suffrage movement.

It was through Louisa’s Saturday morning ‘open house’ events for shop assistants at her home in Lancaster Road that she met Margaret, who in turn met other radicals and was introduced to left-wing books that would be an important influence on her political development.