From hotel fires to hospital scandals, we have reflected on some of the biggest stories from Sussex over the last year.
Today, Daniel Green looks back at the year in politics, with the results of the local elections in May unleashing a political earthquake across the county, as well as looking ahead to what next year’s anticipated general election could mean for Sussex.
The general election may not have been called yet, but 2023 was the year when campaigning got underway.
The noise of campaigning has begun to grow ahead of the crescendo of a general election next year, with parties selecting candidates and canvassing across the county.
The local elections provided a foretaste of what is to come next year, with activists across Sussex battling for control.
Residents across the county returned a seismic result which left no party unscathed, but was particularly damning for the Conservatives.
Tories were ousted in Chichester, Horsham, Mid Sussex and Wealden. In Lewes, not a single Conservative councillor was elected – with a complete wipeout at the hands of the Greens, Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
Labour secured an overall majority on Brighton and Hove City Council in May (Image: The Argus)
Labour painted Brighton and Hove red as Green after Green was toppled. The result dismayed Green activists, who had not anticipated such a defeat, while even Labour supporters were astonished by the scale of their victory.
Even in traditionally solidly Green wards, Labour ran the party close – in an astonishing result in Regency, Labour secured a seat by just one vote.
Watching the results come in was reminiscent of the 1997 landslide election that saw Labour swept to power, with the defeat of council leader Phelim Mac Cafferty amounting to Brighton and Hove’s Michael Portillo moment.
Phelim Mac Cafferty shortly after his election defeat (Image: The Argus)
Social media went into meltdown at the scale of the Greens’ defeat, with one user even offering Mr Mac Cafferty a flight out of Brighton – in a nod to his much-criticised flight to the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.
Amidst the disappointing results for the Greens though was one historic moment – the election of Brighton and Hove’s first openly transgender councillor.
Sussex, traditionally a Conservative county at a general election with a few blotches of red, yellow and green, clearly sent a signal of frustration to the government.
As dramatic a result as the local elections were in May, the political earthquake it unleashed will seem a mere tremor to the general election expected next year – if the polls stay as they are.
The defeat of the Conservatives across the county will no doubt be leaving many a Tory MP with sleepless nights, including those in marginal constituencies.
Areas that once seemed immovable pillars of the “blue wall” now appear to have crumbling foundations, including Worthing, Mid Sussex, and even places like Horsham, Bognor and Bexhill.
Following its success in Sussex at the local elections, Labour have signalled that they are targeting several seats in Sussex, including Hastings and Rye, Crawley and the two Worthing constituencies.
However, the party is increasingly confident in Brighton Pavilion, the Green Party’s only seat, following the sudden announcement by Caroline Lucas that she would not stand for re-election.
After The Argus exclusively broke the news, speculation was rife about who would replace the party’s only MP, who Labour would stand to contest the seat, and – crucially – which party would win.
Sian Berry, right, hopes to replace Caroline Lucas as the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion (Image: The Argus/Andrew Gardner)
Former party leader Sian Berry was announced as the Green Party’s candidate within weeks of Caroline Lucas’s announcement and was quick to move to Brighton and begin knocking on doors to canvass for support.
Rumours that the new council leader Bella Sankey would be among the candidates came to an abrupt end as comedian Eddie Izzard, music industry activist Tom Gray and two of Labour’s new councillors in Hove emerged as the people vying to be Labour’s nominee.
However, Tom Gray was chosen to contest the Brighton Pavilion seat at the next general election.
As for an answer to the next question on people’s lips, who will win, that is still all to play for.
On paper, Caroline Lucas’s 20,000 vote majority at the 2019 general election would appear unassailable. But with the Greens suffering a crippling result at the local election and with Labour riding high in the national polls, the possibility that the Green Party could lose its representation in Parliament is a realistic prospect.
One thing is for sure – both the Green Party and Labour will be fighting hard to win this prize on the south coast, with all eyes on Brighton Pavilion for one of the more quirky results of election night.
The Liberal Democrats, too, have big ambitions, with Lewes and Eastbourne key targets.
Both seats have previously had Lib Dem MPs and, if polling is to be believed, the party are solid favourites to win again. However, the party is also eyeing up other targets in the “blue wall”, including Chichester – the seat of education secretary Gillian Keegan.
Jess Brown-Fuller and the Liberal Democrats have encouraged voters in Chichester to ‘show Keegan the door’ (Image: Jess Brown-Fuller)
Although the constituency is one where you could weigh in the Tory votes, the Lib Dem landslide at the local elections, which saw the party gain 14 seats and majority control on the council, has left the party more optimistic of an historic breakthrough.
For the first time in more than a decade, Sussex will seemingly have its first three-way marginal constituency.
If the polls are to be believed, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and Labour all have a chance of winning the redrawn Mid Sussex constituency.
Expect a fight much like the by-election in Mid Bedfordshire, where a Tory collapse in votes led to intensive campaigning by Labour and the Liberal Democrats. Labour’s campaign, led by Hove MP Peter Kyle, proved fruitful – but without the unlimited resources of a by-election, will the party’s efforts in Mid Sussex return the same result?
As many Conservatives have said to me as of late, the only poll that matters is the one on election day – so the only certainty is uncertainty. However, you don’t have to be a political pundit to know that it would take a monumental shift of the political tide for the Conservatives to remain in Number 10.
The question then, whenever the election is called, will be if Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer can do enough to win power.
Sussex’s seats will be front and centre in that fight – and The Argus will be there to cover every moment.
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