Tom Rutland has been confirmed as the Labour Party’s parliamentary candidate for the East Worthing and Shoreham constituency.
Mr Rutland will stand at the next general election in the seat held by Conservative MP Tim Loughton since 1997.
Mr Rutland has been a member of Lambeth council in London and has represented the Streatham Common and Vale ward since 2022.
He was on the shortlist of Labour candidates for Wycombe in 2022 but lost out to the former MP for Wolverhampton North East, Emma Reynolds.
Mr Rutland’s selection for East Worthing and Shoreham was made on Saturday 25 November by members of the local Labour party, with Mr Rutland announcing the decision on X, formerly Twitter.
He wrote: “Thank you so much to @LabourEWS members for selecting me to run as your candidate for the next general election.
“Together we’ll run a campaign that elects the first ever Labour MP here in East Worthing and Shoreham.”
The other candidates were Abdi Mohamed, Christine Bayliss and Scott Gilfillan. Worthing Borough Council’s deputy leader Carl Walker (Lab, Selden) and Adur councillor Cat Arnold (Lab, St Mary’s) were running for the candidacy but did not make Labour’s shortlist, with some party members criticising the lack of local candidates.
Worthing Borough Council leader Beccy Cooper (Lab, Marine) was selected uncontested as Labour’s candidate for Worthing West in November.
Worthing West, currently held by the long-serving Conservative MP Peter Bottomley, and East Worthing and Shoreham could prove important to Labour at the next election although they were excluded from a list of non-priority seats by the party.
