AN MP has hit out at the direction of the Labour party over the deselection of councillors.

In a tweet to his 16,200 followers, the MP for Hove and Portslade said: “It seems only straight white middle aged men are immune to the sacrifices demanded by the onward march of socialism.”

The tweet came after Labour Councillor Daniel Chapman, who chairs the council’s Children, Young People and Skills Committee, was booted out of the party’s selection for next years local elections after being targeted for deselection by Labour group Momentum.

Two weeks ago, Cllr Chapman’s fellow Queen’s Park ward representative Adrian Morris was also deselected under similar circumstances.

Mr Kyle’s Tuesday tweet was met with criticism on the social media platform, with one man who describes himself as “pro-Corbyn” writing: “As a member of the LGBT community, I’m appalled at this tweet.

“Trying to imply he was deselected due to being gay, when it was because of his Neoliberal ideology, is completely insensitive to the actual fight against homophobia.”

Another commenter wrote: “You are implying his sexuality is part of his deselection.

“Or that he should be somehow immune to shifting party values.

“This is completely daft behaviour, Peter.”

Peter Kyle has defended his tweet, telling The Argus that it was not aimed at an individual case, but should be viewed as a message to the broader society.

He said: “As a party we have to be concious of who we select.

“If it starts to look like the people who we deselect are from a minority group then this could have implications for our equalities agenda and we need to think very carefully.

“Cllr Chapman has been outstanding not just in his work ethic but in his values.

“A lesser politician would have left our community divided because of the cuts to schools being imposed by central government.”

Shortlisting meetings for next year’s Labour candidates take place until July 31.

Sitting councillors who are deselected will still represent their ward until the local elections next year.