The Regency terraces, wide tree lined avenues, bowling greens, retirement homes and golf courses of Hove distinguish it from its easterly neighbour, Brighton.
The constituency stretches back from the seafront to the South Downs. The Sussex county cricket ground is situated in Hove.
Until 1995 when Labour won control of Hove Borough Council (since subsumed into Brighton and Hove unitary authority) Hove had been a predictably safe Conservative stronghold.
It was created a constituency in 1950 and paraded its colours with an inaugural 43.5% Conservative majority. Labour’s Ivor Caplin beat the Conservative candidate Robert Guy MP in 1997 with a majority of just under 4,000 on a swing of 16.4%. Mr Guy suffered from the strength of the Referendum, Independent Conservative and UKIP candidates who polled a total of 3,875 between them.
It also seems that the tactical voting of Liberal Democrats, whose share of the vote almost halved from 1992 to 1997, greatly assisted Labour.
HOMEPAGE | NEWS | WORLD SERVICE | SPORT | MY BBC
