The Green Party secured an historic first seat in East Anglia with a convincing win in the new cross-border Waveney Valley constituency.

Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay secured 20,467 votes to edge out the Conservatives’ Richard Rout with a majority of 5,594.

The constituency, which straddles the Suffolk and Norfolk border and encompasses towns and villages such as Diss, Eye, Harleston, Halesworth and Bungay, had a turnout of 56.99%.

Mr Ramsay, who has previously served on Norwich City Council, said: “I feel truly humbled by the level of support – people have enthusiastically voted Green in Waveney Valley.

“We have offered a positive alternative for people, and I’ve been clear that I will be an active and visible local MP first and foremost, but also pressing this new government to be bolder, whether that is on the action needed to defend our environment or the action needed to restore our public services.”

Mr Ramsay highlighted two main priorities for his in-tray once he settles in at Westminster – the first being the decline in services – particularly the lack of NHS dentists, with the second being the “scandal of sewage in our rivers”.

Following gains in recent years at councils in Suffolk, the party is eyeing further progress in the county council elections in 2025, with Mr Ramsay vying for “substantial gains in both Suffolk and Norfolk”.

Senior Tories and Greens had been predicting a “knife edge” battle for the seat from the beginning of the evening, although former Suffolk County Council deputy leader Richard Rout admitted it would be challenging to fight the Greens, claiming the winning party mobilised more than 100 supporters to canvass through the campaign – a number his party was not able to compete with.

Mr Rout said that the Green party fought the constituency “like a by-election”. He added: “It was a disappointing night, but we saw on the ground the amount of effort the Greens were putting in, the resource, the amount of funding, and we knew the polls nationally weren’t reflecting the true picture on the ground, so we knew we were up against it.

“Although I think we did far more here than many Conservative colleagues did across the county and indeed country, under a sea of Green leaflets it perhaps felt like less.”

Mr Rout said that he “didn’t feel like Norfolk or Suffolk has abandoned Conservatism, but does feel let down by us,” issuing a rallying cry for the party to refocus.

Early on in the count, held at Debenham Sports & Leisure Centre, it became clear the fight would be between the Conservatives and Greens. Labour only managed fourth with 4,621 votes for Gurpreet Padda, despite a strong night for the party across the country.

Instead, Reform UK’s Scott Huggins secured third in the ballot with 7,779 votes. The Liberal Democrats were a distant fifth on 1,214 votes, ahead of Maya Severyn from the Social Democratic Party.

Results: Scott Huggins (Reform UK) – 7779 Gurpreet Padda (Labour) – 4621 Adrian Ramsay (Green) – 20467 Richard Rout (Conservative) – 14873 Maya Severyn (Social Democratic Party) - 118 John Shreeve (Liberal Democrats) – 1214 Turnout: 56.99% Majority: 5594