West Suffolk | |
---|---|
County constituency for the House of Commons | |
County | Suffolk |
Electorate | 76,158 (December 2010) [1] |
Major settlements | Newmarket, Haverhill and Mildenhall |
Current constituency | |
Created | 1997 |
Member of Parliament | Matt Hancock (Conservative) |
Seats | One |
Created from | Bury St Edmunds South Suffolk |
1832–1885 | |
Seats | Two |
Type of constituency | County constituency |
Created from | Suffolk |
Replaced by | Bury St Edmunds (also succeeded itself) North-Western or 'Stowmarket' Division South or 'Sudbury' Division |
West Suffolk is a constituency [n 1] represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Matt Hancock, a Conservative. [n 2]
Between 1832 and 1885 there had also been a constituency, the Western Division of Suffolk, also known as West Suffolk, although on different boundaries.
This area includes a slightly older demographic profile than the national average, with a significant proportion of semi-detached and detached homes and a higher than average proportion of retired people. [2]
Major economic sectors include defence (RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath), agriculture/food (including for major products as well as regional specialities such as ales, Suffolk cider and cured meats), tourism and leisure (such as Newmarket racecourse) and particularly in Haverhill, a range of industries. These include chemicals (such as International Flavors and Fragrances), waste processing, transport, construction and pharmaceuticals.
Workless claimants who were registered jobseekers were in November 2012 lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 2.5% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian . [3]
The seat's current version was created with Parliamentary approval of the Boundary Commission's fourth periodic review of Westminster constituencies in time for the 1997 general election.
The seat at this time has only been represented by Conservatives with the narrowest majority having been that of 1997 at only 3.8% of the vote, since which the majority has gradually increased to a level seen most commonly in safe seats.
For the 2010 general election, the transition was planned six months before, on 23 November 2009, when the incumbent announced he would not stand again. [4]
Richard Spring [n 3] was an opposition spokesman for Foreign Affairs (2000-2004) (shadowing a Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister) then Shadow Minister for the Treasury (2004-2005) before being a vice-chairman of his party and being elevated to the House of Lords as Lord Risby. Several of his ancestors had previously represented Suffolk in the House of Commons.
Matt Hancock was a government minister serving under various positions from 2012 until the 2015 general election, when he was promoted to the Cabinet as Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office. After a short stint outside the Cabinet between 2016 and 2018 as a minister at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, he rejoined the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and was promoted in July 2018 to serve as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, serving until 2021 when he resigned from this position following an affair with his aide Gina Coladangelo, which at the time breached COVID-19 social distancing rules. Previously Mr Hancock had seen no reason whatsoever to resign after claims in the Guardian newspaper that he had secured £40 million for the landlord of his local pub after he decided that pulling pints and serving packets of crisps made him an ideal candidate to manufacture PPE. [5] Another friend of Mr Hancock's was awarded a PPE contract for £14.4 million despite having no previous manufacturing experience, but whose husband had entirely coincidentally donated £5,000 to Mr Hancock's office in 2019. [6]
The new county constituency was formed primarily from the majority (including Newmarket) of the constituency of Bury St Edmunds, which was reconfigured. It was extended southwards, incorporating westernmost areas of South Suffolk, including Haverhill.
Marginal changes due to revision of local authority wards.
NB With effect from 1 April 2019, the District of Forest Heath and the Borough of St Edmundsbury were abolished and absorbed into the District of West Suffolk . [9]
Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the composition of the constituency is as follows (as they existed on 1 December 2020):
The four wards (Bardwell, Barningham, Ixworth and Stanton) in the north east corner of the seat were moved to the newly named constituency of Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, partly offset by small transfers in from Bury St Edmunds and South Suffolk.
The constituency includes the town of Newmarket, a global centre of horse racing, as well as the towns of Haverhill and Mildenhall, with a farmed landscape, interspersed with patches of forest [n 4] and small villages.
Election | Member [11] | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
1997 | Richard Spring | Conservative | |
2010 | Matt Hancock | Conservative | |
2022 | Independent [12] | ||
2024 | Conservative | ||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Independent | Luke O'Brien [13] | ||||
Liberal Democrats | Henry Batchelor [14] | ||||
Labour | Rebecca Denness [15] | ||||
Green | Mark Ereira-Guyer [16] | ||||
SDP | Ivan Kinsman [17] | ||||
Reform UK | David Bull [18] | ||||
Independent | Katie Parker [19] | ||||
Conservative | Nick Timothy [20] | ||||
Majority | |||||
Turnout | |||||
Registered electors | |||||
Swing | |||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Matt Hancock | 33,842 | 65.8 | +4.6 | |
Labour | Claire Unwin | 10,648 | 20.7 | ―7.5 | |
Liberal Democrats | Elfreda Tealby-Watson | 4,685 | 9.1 | +4.9 | |
Green | Donald Allwright | 2,262 | 4.4 | +2.6 | |
Majority | 23,194 | 45.1 | +12.1 | ||
Turnout | 51,437 | 64.1 | ―2.8 | ||
Registered electors | 80,192 | +3.7 | |||
Conservative hold | Swing | +6.1 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Matt Hancock | 31,649 | 61.2 | +9.0 | |
Labour | Michael Jefferys | 14,586 | 28.2 | +10.7 | |
UKIP | Julian Flood | 2,396 | 4.6 | ―17.1 | |
Liberal Democrats | Elfreda Tealby-Watson | 2,180 | 4.2 | ―0.8 | |
Green | Donald Allwright | 935 | 1.8 | ―1.8 | |
Majority | 17,063 | 33.0 | +2.5 | ||
Turnout | 51,746 | 66.9 | +2.3 | ||
Registered electors | 77,348 | ||||
Conservative hold | Swing | ―0.9 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Matt Hancock | 25,684 | 52.2 | +1.6 | |
UKIP | Julian Flood [24] | 10,700 | 21.7 | +15.3 | |
Labour | Michael Jefferys | 8,604 | 17.5 | +2.8 | |
Liberal Democrats | Elfreda Tealby-Watson [25] | 2,465 | 5.0 | ―18.4 | |
Green | Niall Pettitt [26] | 1,779 | 3.6 | New | |
Majority | 14,984 | 30.5 | +3.3 | ||
Turnout | 49,232 | 64.6 | ―0.1 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | ―6.9 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Matt Hancock | 24,312 | 50.6 | +1.7 | |
Liberal Democrats | Belinda Brooks-Gordon | 11,262 | 23.4 | +6.2 | |
Labour | Ohid Ahmed | 7,089 | 14.7 | ―14.2 | |
UKIP | Ian Smith | 3,085 | 6.4 | +1.5 | |
BNP | Ramon Johns | 1,428 | 3.0 | New | |
Independent | Andrew Appleby | 540 | 1.1 | New | |
CPA | Colin Young | 373 | 0.8 | New | |
Majority | 13,050 | 27.2 | +7.0 | ||
Turnout | 48,089 | 64.7 | +3.9 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | ―2.3 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Richard Spring | 21,682 | 49.0 | +1.4 | |
Labour | Michael Jeffreys | 12,773 | 28.9 | ―8.6 | |
Liberal Democrats | Adrian Graves | 7,573 | 17.1 | +5.3 | |
UKIP | Ian Smith | 2,177 | 4.9 | +1.8 | |
Majority | 8,909 | 20.1 | +10.0 | ||
Turnout | 44,205 | 60.7 | +0.2 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +5.0 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Richard Spring | 20,201 | 47.6 | +6.7 | |
Labour | Michael Jefferys | 15,906 | 37.5 | +0.4 | |
Liberal Democrats | Robin Martlew | 5,017 | 11.8 | ―2.2 | |
UKIP | Will Burrows | 1,321 | 3.1 | New | |
Majority | 4,295 | 10.1 | +6.3 | ||
Turnout | 42,445 | 60.5 | ―11.0 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +3.1 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Richard Spring | 20,081 | 40.9 | ||
Labour | Michael Jefferys | 18,214 | 37.1 | ||
Liberal Democrats | Adrian Graves | 6,892 | 14.0 | ||
Referendum | James Carver | 3,724 | 7.6 | ||
Natural Law | Alistair Shearer | 171 | 0.3 | ||
Majority | 1,867 | 3.8 | |||
Turnout | 49,082 | 71.5 | |||
Conservative win (new seat) |
Sir Geoffrey Robert Clifton-Brown is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for The Cotswolds, formerly Cirencester and Tewkesbury, since the 1992 general election.
Richard John Grenville Spring, Baron Risby is a former Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bury St Edmunds from 1992 to 1997, and for West Suffolk from 1997 to 2010. He joined the House of Lords in 2010 and is currently the Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to Algeria and Lebanon.
West Suffolk was an administrative county of England created in 1889 from part of the county of Suffolk. It survived until 1974 when it was rejoined with East Suffolk. Its county town was Bury St Edmunds.
St Edmundsbury was a local government district and borough in Suffolk, England. It was named after its main town, Bury St Edmunds. The second town in the district was Haverhill. The population of the district was 111,008 at the 2011 Census.
Thingoe Rural District was a rural district in the county of West Suffolk, England between 1894 and 1974. It was named after the ancient Hundred of Thingoe and administered from Bury St Edmunds, which it surrounded.
Bury St Edmunds was a constituency in Suffolk represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament from 2015 to 2024 by Jo Churchill, a Conservative.
South Suffolk is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by James Cartlidge, a Conservative.
Troston is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England, five miles north-east of Bury St Edmunds. Its parish church contains rare mediaeval wall paintings, including dragon-slaying and the Martyrdom of St Edmund.
The Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich is a Church of England diocese based in Ipswich, covering Suffolk. The cathedral is St Edmundsbury Cathedral, and the bishop is the Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. It is part of the Province of Canterbury.
St Edmundsbury Borough Council in Suffolk, England, was elected every four years. After the last boundary changes in 2003, 45 councillors were elected from 31 wards. The council was abolished in 2019, with the area becoming part of West Suffolk.
The St. Edmundsbury Football League was a football competition based around the town of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England. At various points it had up to four divisions and sits at level 18 of the English football league system.
John Henry Morgan Griffiths is a Conservative local government politician and former merchant banker. As leader of St Edmundsbury Borough Council from 2003 he was instrumental in establishing significant growth and development in its two towns of Haverhill and Bury St Edmunds. He is the son of former government minister Sir Eldon Griffiths and was awarded the MBE in 2011 for services to local government.
The 2015 St. Edmundsbury Borough Council election took place on 7 May 2015 to elect members of the St. Edmundsbury Borough Council in England. It was held on the same day as other local elections.
West Suffolk District is a local government district in Suffolk, England. It was established in 2019 as a merger of the previous Forest Heath District with the Borough of St Edmundsbury. The council is based in Bury St Edmunds, the district's largest town. The district also contains the towns of Brandon, Clare, Haverhill, Mildenhall and Newmarket, along with numerous villages and surrounding rural areas. In 2021 it had a population of 180,820.
Elections of members of West Suffolk Council are held every four years, following the merger of Forest Heath district council and the Borough of St Edmundsbury to form the new West Suffolk district in April 2019. 64 councillors are elected to the chamber, with 34 wards each electing either one, two or three representatives. The first elections to West Suffolk District Council were held on 2 May 2019.
The Suffolk Guild of Ringers for the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich is a society and charity supporting the bell ringers and rings of bells in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich who practice the art of change ringing. The Guild was established on 2 April 1923 at Ipswich and covers over 200 rings of bells in the county of Suffolk in the area that falls within the diocese boundary.
Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket is a constituency of the House of Commons in the UK Parliament. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, it will first be contested at the 2024 general election. The constituency name refers to the Suffolk towns of Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket.