Geoffrey Theobald, opposition leader on Brighton and Hove Council, is one of three hopefuls on the shortlist to become the Conservative candidate for Brighton Kemp Town at the next General

Election.

Coun Theobald will fight it out with two Londoners for the right to take on

sitting Labour MP Des Turner.

The party's prospective candidate will be selected at a meeting of Kemp

Town Conservative Association members on Tuesday evening at Woodingdean Primary School in Warren Road.

Coun Theobald, 53, a former mayor of Brighton in 1982-3, has never fought a General Election, unlike his two younger opponents, Tony Brown, 43, from Acton, and Kim Humphreys, 34, from Dulwich.

In 1997 he was awarded the OBE for political and public services.

The retired chartered surveyor lives in Dyke Road, in the Brighton Pavilion constituency.

He was an East Sussex county councillor from 1973 until 1997, apart from a four-year gap when he lost his seat.

Since the formation of Brighton and Hove Council two years ago, he and his wife, Carol, have represented the Patcham ward.

Conservatives had held the previously marginal Brighton Kemp Town seat since 1970, with Sir Andrew Bowden as MP.

In the huge swing to Labour at the 1997 election, Brighton councillor Des Turner won with a 3,534 majority, reflecting a 13.6 per cent swing to Labour.

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