Labour members across Sussex are preparing to choose who will have their party's nomination into the first-ever Sussex & Brighton mayoral election in May 2026.
Four candidates have stepped forward, each with deep local ties and different visions for how Labour should use the powers of a new devolved mayoralty.
Below we set out who’s running – in alphabetical order – and what they are offering.
Cat Arnold
Cat Arnold is a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee and a councillor in Adur. She combines a career in business with long-standing voluntary leadership, including setting up the Adur Community Café and running charities supporting families in difficulty.
Arnold’s pitch is about connection and fairness: tackling housing shortages, investing in green jobs, supporting youth services, and making transport across Sussex fit for purpose. She argues that Sussex risks becoming the “squashed middle child” of England – overlooked by Westminster – and says a Labour mayor can change that by “bringing people together to make things happen.”
Read Cat Arnold's statement here.
Caroline Baxter
Caroline Baxter has held roles at all three levels of local government – from parish councillor to Worthing borough cabinet member and West Sussex county councillor – and now works as chief of staff to a Sussex Labour MP. Alongside politics, she has co-run a Sussex business for nearly 30 years.
Her campaign centres on “delivery, trust, and standing up for what matters”, with priorities including affordable homes, regeneration of town centres, strategic transport planning and climate action. She stresses her track record as a campaigner who can win tough elections, including helping secure Labour’s 2024 breakthrough in Worthing West.
Read Caroline Baxter's statement here.
Margi O’Callaghan
Margi O’Callaghan is a Hastings councillor and former mayor of the town, with a career spanning children’s social care, teaching and trade union activism.
She casts herself as “a real person for real people” – someone who is visible, approachable, and rooted in everyday Sussex life. Her campaign focuses on youth opportunity, affordable transport, protecting the environment and empowering residents to feel politics is not “a closed club.”
O’Callaghan stresses the importance of being a mayor who listens and inspires others to step into public life.
Read Margi O’Callaghan's statement here.
Dan Yates
Dan Yates is the former Labour leader of Brighton & Hove City Council, with experience as a parish, district and city councillor. He is running on a platform of unity and practical devolution.
Yates argues Sussex needs a mayor who can “double housing delivery, strengthen policing, and negotiate across a complex political landscape.” He points to his record of working with other parties locally to get results, while keeping Labour values at the core.
For Yates, devolution is about proving that “unity is strength” – ending fragmented services and delivering hope where rural and coastal deprivation has been overlooked.
Read Dan Yates' statement here.
What happens next?
The Labour nomination will be decided by one member, one vote across Sussex constituency Labour parties. Whoever emerges will face not just the challenge of uniting Labour members, but of making the case for a Sussex mayoralty at all – with the public still unsure what this new role can deliver.
The nominee facing the ballot in May should be announced in November.
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