LFTP to mirror and exclude

Question

I'm using LFTP in a script called by PHP, to sync files between my local drive and my webspace using reverse mirror. This works:

lftp sftp://user:pass@host-p 22 -e 'set sftp:connect-program "ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -a -x -i /home/.ssh/yourkey.key"; 
mirror -eRv --delete /media/sparky/Artwork/Web/Sites/space-art.co.uk/ /spaceart; quit;'

But when I try to exclude certain folders/files, it systematically deletes all my files on the remote server. I used this:

    lftp sftp://user:pass@host-p 22 -e 'set sftp:connect-program "ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -a -x -i /home/.ssh/yourkey.key"; 
mirror -eRv 
--exclude .vscode/ 
--exclude *.clpprj
--exclude *.scprj
--exclude database/scripts/ 
--delete /media/sparky/Artwork/Web/Sites/space-art.co.uk/ /spaceart; quit;'

I call the above script using this:

$output = shell_exec("/media/sparky/Artwork/Web/Sites/markgarlick.com/database/scripts/.sync-spaceart.sh") or die ("Error syncing to space-art.co.uk");

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.