Peter Kyle was first elected as the Labour MP for Hove in 2015, being reelected in 2019 with a majority of 17,044.
He currently serves as the shadow secretary of state for science innovation and technology, having been from his previous post of shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland in Keir Starmer’s September shadow cabinet reshuffle.
His constituency of Hove is a compact seat that covers the western suburbs of Brighton on the Sussex coast. It includes the settlements of Hove, Portslade, and Aldrington. This is a young seat in which a third of voters are said to be aged between 25 and 45, and a high two thirds of the electorate backed Remain in the 2016 EU referendum.
Hove was continuously held by the Conservatives between 1950 and 1997. It then became an ultra competitive marginal seat which was held by Labour between 1997 and 2010, and the Conservatives again between 2010 and 2015. However in recent years this Remain voting area, has arguably bucked the national trend more than anywhere else in the UK, and returned the Labour Party with majorities of close to twenty thousand.
Peter Kyle was first appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in November 2021. He served as the Shadow Minister for Victims and Youth Justice between 2020 and 2021.
Born in 1979, Peter Kyle struggled with dyslexia as a child. Her returned to school aged 25 and later achieved a PhD in community economic development from Sussex University.
Prior to his political career, Kyle has worked as chief executive for Working for Youth, a charity focusing on helping unemployed young people. He was also once an aid worker in the Balkans, and set up an orphanage in Romania. He later worked in the Cabinet Office and as Deputy Chief Executive of ACEVO (the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations). He has also dabbled in video production.
Kyle is considered to be slightly on the right of the Labour Party, and in the past, he has had battles with some in his local Constituency Labour Party who were calling for his deselection for a perceived lack of loyalty to the former Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn. He supported Remain in the 2016 EU referendum, and supported Jess Phillips in the 2020 Labour leadership contest.
During the 2019 Brexit crisis, he put forward an amendment known as the Kyle-Wilson amendment, which proposed passing a Brexit deal on the condition that it was put to the public in a second referendum.
Kyle is openly gay, and a former Trustee of Brighton Pride.
Peter Kyle has served as Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Southern Rail. He is Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Acquired Brain Injury; Dyslexia; Fourth Industrial Revolution; HIV and AIDS; Professional Sales; and Tidy Britain.
Email: peter.kyle.mp@parliament.uk
Personal Website: http://www.peterkyle.co.uk/
Twitter: twitter.com/peterkyle
