Councillor Ken Bodfish will be able to fight for his old seat in next year's local elections after being reselected by his Labour peers.
The former Brighton and Hove City Council leader won the right to stay in politics at a meeting last night.
He had represented the Queen's Park Ward for 30 years before being deselected by Labour earlier this year.
He resigned as leader of the city council and Labour group in January to become chairman of the Sussex Partnership NHS Trust.
About 50 Labour party members met in a pub to choose who would stand in Queen's Park in the May elections.
The candidates who missed out were Daniel Yates, former Adur District Council leader and last year's general election candidate for Worthing and East Shoreham,; Malcolm Prescott, who stood as a Labour candidate in the 2003 local elections; and Penny Gilbey, daughter of former Brighton councillor George Humphrey.
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