The SDP is standing candidates in Sussex at the next election in the hope of electing its first MPs for more than 30 years.

The party is a splinter group from the original Social Democratic Party, founded in 1981 by former Labour Party members Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams - who were known as the Gang of Four.

The original SDP merged with the Liberal Party in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats, but Owen Jones formed a breakaway group, also called the SDP - only for the party to dissolve in 1990.

However, activists met and voted to continue the party, leading to the creation of a third SDP in 1990.

Now, 33 years on, the party is standing four candidates in Sussex in the hopes of having an SDP MP return to Westminster.

A party spokesman said that voters are calling for an end to the two-party system.

He said: “People demand to be heard and are sick of being ignored by the very people we vote in to represent us.

“We want to halt the post-liberal rot that has led the Conservatives to sell anything and everything that isn’t nailed down and the reactionary nature of the Labour Party which now views the entire country as a charity to be supported through increasing levels of taxation.”

The party’s chairwoman Valerie Gray is among the four candidates announced for Sussex.

Ms Gray, who will stand as the SDP’s candidate in Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven against Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, believes the “cosy Whitehall consensus has lost touch with the country at large”.

She plans to campaign on one of the party’s primary concerns - affordable housing.

“Brighton is one of the most expensive places in the country for housing and deters young people from setting up a home and raising a family,” the party spokesman.

“More house building is essential but we also need to see a significant reduction in immigration, which only exacerbates the demand for housing as well as deterring industry from investing in our existing workforce.”

The party’s three other candidates in Sussex announced so far are Carl Buckfield (Brighton Pavilion), Rob Mason (Bexhill and Battle) and Stephen Gander (Sussex Weald).

Voters are expected to go to the polls for the general election sometime next year.