Rural Suffolk turns its back on Tories for first time

Suffolk Coastal is newer - it was created in 1983 - but again rural east Suffolk had never voted for a Labour MP until this year's general election.

And the Green Party had never come anywhere near winning a seat in East Anglia - but now the new Waveney Valley seat that straddles the Suffolk-Norfolk border is represented by Green co-leader Adrian Ramsay.

There have been Labour landslides in the past - most recently in 1997 - but in Suffolk the only seats that were not won by the Conservatives were Ipswich and Lowestoft/Waveney.

That's all changed this year.

Bury St Edmunds (now named Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket) and Suffolk Coastal have both elected a Labour MP for the first time - and the Green's success in Waveney Valley comes after a very energetic campaign from party members from across the region.

There are now only three Conservative MPs in Suffolk - and there is a suspicion among many that there might only have been two had it not been for Labour candidate Kevin Craig's suspension while standing for the Central Suffolk and North Ipswich constituency.

Both Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket and Suffolk Coastal have seen minor boundary changes. And their character has changed over the years.

Peter Prinsley is Bury's first Labour MP. (Image: Paul Geater)

The Bury seat won for Labour by Peter Prinsley has seen much development and is increasingly popular for young, relatively affluent people - the kind of demographic that is increasingly voting Labour.

Jenny Riddell-Carpenter with some of the team who helped her win Suffolk Coastal. (Image: Suffolk Coastal Labour Party)

And in Suffolk Coastal, taken by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, the emphasis is increasingly focused on new industries including energy and transportation/logistics. 

The additional problem for the Tories in both these seats was their traditional support from older voters came under pressure from Reform UK, whose candidates won several thousand votes.

Waveney Valley is a brand-new constituency made up of sizeable chunks of other seats across a county boundary and in several different districts.

There are a substantial number of Green councillors, particularly on the Suffolk side of the county boundary, but it was very difficult to estimate what would happen there until the election result was announced.