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.
[3] Caplin, described as being from the centrist wing of the Labour Party, was elected as Member of Parliament for Hove in 1997,[3] the city's first gay MP.
[2] He stood down from the House of Commons at the 2005 general election, following predictions he would lose the seat because of the strength of opposition in his constituency to the invasion of Iraq.
[12][13][14] In 2009 Caplin was appointed executive director of Haas Energy, a British company which hoped to obtain oil concessions in Iraq.
[3] In January 2025 Caplin was arrested in Brighton by Sussex Police on suspicion of engaging in online sexual communications with a child, after being involved in an operation carried out by a group of anti-paedophile activists.
[18] According to the Press Gazette "The Ivor Caplin account on X has now been removed but up until [January 2025] it has been sharing, liking and interacting with posts showing explicit pornography – including pictures and videos of naked young people having sex".