As the dust now settles over the local election results, it is clear that more people across Sussex are beginning to put their trust in Labour.

In Peacehaven, we increased our share of the vote; in Worthing, we again increased our share; in Hastings, we won seven of the eight seats up for election. The good results go on across the Sussex coast and in towns and rural areas.

But that is not to say we can ignore Ukip – a party which wants to raise taxes for all up to the level of 33%; a party that believes we need more cuts despite the impact of existing cuts on services, and a party that shrugs its shoulders when told three-and-a-half million jobs across our country rely on the UK being part of the world’s largest single market: the EU.

People in Brighton, Hove, Peacehaven and across Sussex now have three simple choices at next year’s elections: the cuts of the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Ukip, the inept policies of the Green Party – which even the Green MP does not now seem to agree with – or the Labour Party, which genuinely wants a fiscal stimulus for jobs and to invest in the services on which we all rely.

James Watkins, Labour Party European Parliamentary candidate for the South East