Labour's Peter Kyle at Worthing rally ahead of May elections

Hove and Portslade MP Peter Kyle visited Worthing Pier on Monday, March 30, meeting councillors, MPs and supporters.

He urged voters to keep his party in control of the town's council.

Mr Kyle, who grew up in Bognor, said “Worthing hasn’t looked this good for a long time” and “we need to keep going in this direction”.

He said: “My mum used to bring me to Worthing to go shopping on the occasional Saturday because it was somewhere she loved.

“I’ve seen Worthing for many decades now and Worthing hasn’t looked this good for a long time.

“If you’re in a town which is looking better, feeling better, which has more vibrancy to it and you have an ambitious set of plans for the future, that’s somewhere where you’re excited to live.

The Labour rally at Worthing Pier (Image: The Argus)

“People won’t want to lose the progress we’ve made. The challenge we’ve got now, the opportunity we’ve got now is not what we did before, we can now go out and say vote for us because we need to keep going in this direction.

“That’s the opportunity we’ve got and that’s what we’re doing today.”

He spoke on a range of topics including housing, defending Labour’s gains in upcoming council elections on May 7, the struggles of Worthing town centre and the cost of living.

The Argus asked Mr Kyle whether the government was listening to the concerns of Worthing residents who are battling to protect green spaces from Labour’s housing targets.

“We are absolutely listening to residents' concerns, but also their ambitions,” he said.

“You often hear in the same sentence, ‘I want new houses but I'm really concerned about where they'll go and the impact it will have on my community’.

“People move to a community because they love that community as it is and when there is very rapid social change or physical change in a community that people don't feel part of or consulted on, then it unsettles people, for understandable reasons.

Worthing West MP Beccy Cooper and Tom Rutland, MP for Shoreham and East Worthing (Image: The Argus)

“That's why you need really great leadership at a time like this, leadership at the top, where you'll have a prime minister that is determined to end the housing crisis we have.

“Leadership in the grassroots, in communities, with Labour councillors and candidates who will give voice to residents and guide residents and communities through these difficult times.”

He added that in Brighton, the “Labour administration, working with the Labour government, has proven that you can increase public green space at the same time as increasing housing”.

“We've done the Moda development and the Sackville gardens development with a quite large housing residential block, which was quite a striking design," he said.

“We also have the first new park for two generations in the whole city and look how vibrant that is.

“It's got open space, it's got dog walking space, it's got racquetball, it's got a skateboard park and it's got bowling and croquet.

“It is green space, it's multi-use and it's new, so you can do both, and that is what Labour is aspiring to do in Worthing, is what we've been achieving in Brighton and it shows what Labour in Sussex is capable of doing.”

Mr Kyle told a press huddle he was “really confident” about defending Labour gains with the government and local administrations “taking big steps in the right direction”.

“Don't stop us before we've delivered the promises that we that people voted for in the first place and these local elections are a really key choice,” he said.

In relation to the rise of Reform and the Green Party, Mr Kyle urged voters not to “vote for one extreme just simply to counter the other extreme” and instead opt for Labour as the “mainstream alternative”.

Councillor Sophie Cox, leader of Worthing Borough Council said: “I’m incredibly proud of the work we’re delivering here in Worthing, and grateful to Peter for his continued support as we campaign to keep Worthing Labour in May.

“From providing real cost of living support and investing in prevention, to securing a permanent future for our much-loved pier, our councillors are focused on the priorities that matter most to local people.

“We’re determined to be a council that listens, takes action and stands with our communities - protecting what makes Worthing special while building a fairer, more resilient town for the future.”

Beccy Cooper, MP for Worthing West, said: “Regeneration is a key Labour priority here in Worthing and with footfall up in the town centre, it’s great to see the business secretary giving us his full support.

“Once completed this summer, Montague Gardens will give a huge boost to local businesses from both residents and visitors, as will the work being done to protect and preserve cherished assets like the lido and the pier."

Tom Rutland, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, said: “It’s great to have Peter’s support for our campaign to keep Worthing and Adur Labour.

“Together we are achieving so much for our community - from getting the Shoreham Flood Wall built to getting to work on restoring Worthing Lido - and we need Labour councils working in partnership with our Labour MPs and government to keep on making Adur and Worthing the best they can be.

“With NHS waiting lists down by over 20,000 locally and investment flowing into our schools, GP practices and community centres, the Labour government and councils are putting Worthing and Adur on the right track."