Ex-Brighton and Hove City Council leader Ken Bodfish failed to attend the most important meeting of the year after his party dropped him as a candidate for next year's local elections.

Ken Bodfish, who has been a Labour councillor since 1984, was left fuming on Wednesday night after party members blocked him from standing for re-election to the city council's Queen's Park ward.

The humiliating rejection followed his resignation as leader of the council and Labour group last month.

It means Coun Bodfish, who led the council for six years, will not be able to contest the seat at next May's local election as a Labour candidate.

His colleagues said they thought he was unlikely to win nominations in other wards.

Coun Bodfish had been expected to attend yesterday's vital budget meeting at Brighton Town Hall, at which councillors raised council tax by 4.9 per cent, bringing the average bill for 2006/7 to £1,277.87.

After he failed to show up, The Argus called him and asked him why he chose to stay away, asking if his failure to attend was due to him being angry or upset at not being re-selected to stand for the Queen's Park ward, a ward in which his home lies.

Coun Bodfish said: "I'm not at the meeting. I have other things to do. I'm now chair of a national health trust.

"I'm busy, I do not talk about things other than mental health issues."

Party members had been expected to rubber stamp Coun Bodfish's nomination on Wednesday as they did those of the ward's other sitting councillors, Simon Burgess and Delia Forester.

But in a move which shocked senior councillors, they dumped their former leader in favour of 45-year-old David Harvey, chairman of the city's gay Pride festival.

Members are believed to have been unhappy with Coun Bodfish's style of leadership and the events which led up to his resignation, which included losing a confidence vote last year.

The party is yet to name its candidates in all but five of the city's 21 wards and Coun Bodfish could still seek to win nominations elsewhere in the city.

Yesterday he refused to be drawn on issues about his future position.

Labour councillor Francis Tonks said: "The safe Labour seats have been allocated and it's unlikely he would get anywhere else."

Green councillor Simon Williams said: "The Labour Party appears to be in disarray. That they have done this to Bodfish within a month of him stepping down as leader underlines the problems the party have got. It's panic time for Labour."