Last week there was a political earthquake in Brighton & Hove. Residents in every corner of the City voted Labour in their many thousands. We went from having 16 to 38 seats on the 54 strong City Council.

Former Green strongholds in Hanover, Preston Park and Regency went Labour in a 10.75% swing, reducing the Greens from 20 seats to 7 in their worst showing since 2003. Conservatives lost seats from Woodingdean to Wish to Hangleton, leaving them with just six in their worst showing ever.

Brighton and Hove residents elected their first Labour-majority Council of this century, having last done so in 1999. This is the largest political majority ever in Brighton and Hove since the authority was first created in 1996. It is a huge mandate that comes with huge responsibility.

On Friday night, following the announcement that the Green Leader and his two deputies had lost their seats, the newly elected Labour Group of councillors held their first Group meeting and elected me as their leader, making me the incoming Leader of Brighton and Hove Council. It is the greatest honour of my life.

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As the news sinks in, my first thoughts are for our residents. We know it is a privilege to form a majority administration and we will strive to serve the residents of Brighton and Hove with purpose, diligence and compassion. We promise to actively listen, to meaningfully consult and to work in partnership with residents, communities, voluntary groups and businesses to tackle the many challenges we face and to bring positive change.

Second, while I will never shy away from critiquing the record of our political opponents, I recognise that as our Party celebrates its success, councillors who have lost their seats and candidates who were not successful in gaining seats will be dealing with the emotional fallout. I offer sincere commiserations. Politics can be all-consuming and delivers binary outcomes which can feel brutal when they come.

By the same token I extend warm congratulations to all councillors who have been elected, especially those newly elected. Our Green, Tory and Independent colleagues are charged with holding us to account. This is a vitally important function which if done well will make us a better Administration.

Most of all I know we have a huge task on our hands. I know from knocking on thousands of doors over the past 8 months that the scale of our victory is the mirror image of the depth of frustration felt by residents. Frustration at the national Conservative Government for its gross mismanagement of our economy, it’s disconnection from the lives of ordinary people and the nastiness it directs towards people seeking sanctuary.

And frustration at an outgoing Green Administration: for their mismanagement of council finances, landing residents with a £47 million debt for the i360; for their inability to deliver decent and reliable basic services to residents and for an arrogant approach to governing which assumed they knew best and saw them doing things to, rather than with, residents.

For my own part I have been shocked at the record of a Green Party which claims to occupy the progressive Left. There is nothing progressive about forcing adult asylum seekers to sleep rough during Covid and giving Brighton the highest number of homeless deaths in England in 2022. Yet these outcomes were directly delivered by the now-defeated Greens.

So how will Labour govern? We will focus relentlessly on rescuing our public services. From rubbish to recycling to graffiti to weeds, our city looks tired and dirty and needs some TLC.

We will drive a transformative housing agenda, by tackling rogue landlords and developers, increasing social housing, repurposing empty buildings and investing in supported accommodation.

We will prioritise radical environmental action driving Brighton and Hove towards carbon Net Zero with investment in heat pumps, solar panels, park and ride schemes and improved public transport.

We will take a joined up approach to transport city-wide so that active travel is actively encouraged, while ensuring that those who need to use cars such as people with disabilities, the elderly and tradespeople can get around with ease.

We will make quality education for all children in the city a top priority and commit ourselves to a comprehensive strategy to drive down educational inequality for working class children.

We will make fairness and equality our benchmark in all we do. Celebrating and promoting our LGBT community, focusing on tackling Violence Against Women and Girls and supporting our Black, Asian, ethnic minority, refugee and migrant population.

Most importantly, we don't pretend to have all the answers and we know we haven’t always got it right in the past. But having listened to our residents we understand the need to face outwards to our beloved City and that we will do.