Ivor Caplin

Ivor Keith Caplin (born 8 November 1958) is a British Labour Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hove from 1997 until 2005.

Caplin was born in Brighton and educated at King Edward's School, Witley and Brighton College of Technology. He had a career in marketing with the Legal & General Assurance Society. In 1991 he was elected to Hove Borough Council, and in 1995 he led Labour's successful campaign to win control of the Council and became its Leader until April 1997, when it merged with Brighton. He was elected to the new Brighton and Hove Council in 1996 and was Deputy Leader until resigning from the Council in March 1998.

Caplin was elected as Member of Parliament for Hove in 1997. In 1998 he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Margaret Beckett. After re-election in 2001 he became an Assistant Government Whip and then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Veterans at the Ministry of Defence. Following the invasion of Iraq in 2003 Caplin was the focus of anti-war protests mostly coordinated by "Hove Action for Peace". Large weekly protests were held outside his Constituency Surgery at Hove Town Hall over a few years. As a Whip and Junior Defence Minister many people in Brighton and Hove felt that he was directly complicit in the decision to go to war in Iraq. He gained a certain notoriety and was heavily criticised following his refusal to accept an anti-war petition presented to him from the people of Hove. He stood down from the House of Commons at the 2005 general election.