Behind the coast there is a striking social mix.

The area is also home to a large number of students from Sussex and Brighton Universities.

Brighton Kemptown was the first seat that Labour ever won in Sussex and the only one they had won in the county before 1997.

Dennis Hobden took the constituency in 1964 with a majority of seven votes and held it until 1970.

From 1970 to 1997, however, the seat was in Tory hands.

Boundary changes in 1995 left the Conservatives a notional 10,300 majority, transforming this traditionally marginal seat into an apparently safe one.

But it still fell to former Brighton and East Sussex Labour councillor Desmond Turner in 1997 with a majority of 3,534 on a swing of 13.9%.