Brighton Kemptown & Peacehaven.

Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven runs east along the Sussex coast from the edge of a city into a string of smaller seaside settlements. Three-quarters of its people live within Brighton and Hove itself, with the town of Peacehaven next-largest and the villages of Telscombe Cliffs and East Saltdean smaller again. It is a relatively young, well-educated seat, with a median age of 42. Unusually, two authorities run it: Brighton and Hove, a unitary council, holds five wards here and Lewes, a district council, four further east.

Across both councils the recent ward picture leans firmly towards Labour, which has taken fourteen of seventeen recent contests. Brighton & Hove Independents hold two wards and the Greens one, the latter the most recent result. The seat was first contested on these 2023 boundaries in 2024, when Labour took 44 per cent, more than double the Conservative runner-up on 20 per cent. The sitting member, Chris Ward, won for Labour that year and has shown no whipped dissent of late.

On the figures available the seat looks comfortably Labour-leaning, though a recent Green ward win keeps the city end in play. Its civic life has lately been dominated by the unglamorous business of local government, coverage centring on consultation and the future shape of the councils. Recorded public order offences appear to run around two-fifths above the constituency average, the one category that diverges clearly. The seat looks broadly secure for the incumbent party, but its split between two reorganising authorities leaves its administrative future less settled than its politics.