County Suffolk European Parliament constituency East of England Major settlement Lowestoft Replaced by Lowestoft Party Conservative Party | Major settlements Lowestoft Member of parliament Peter Aldous Number of members 1 Created from Lowestoft Electorate 79,132 (December 2010) | |
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Waveney is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Peter Aldous, a Conservative.
Contents
Boundaries
1983–1997: The District of Waveney.
1997–2010: The District of Waveney except the wards of Blything, Halesworth, and Southwold.
2010–present: The District of Waveney wards of Beccles North, Beccles South, Bungay, Carlton, Carlton Colville, Gunton and Corton, Harbour, Kessingland, Kirkley, Lothingland, Normanston, Oulton, Oulton Broad, Pakefield, St Margaret's, The Saints, Wainford, Whitton, and Worlingham.
The seat is based on the coastal town of Lowestoft, which today is generally Labour-voting, because of its recent history as a declining seaside resort, fishing and industrial town. However, the constituency also takes in the small towns of Beccles, Bungay and Halesworth. These along with the smaller inland rural villages are considerably more supportive of Conservatives.
History
The seat was created in 1983 under the Act implementing the third periodic review of Westminster constituencies, broadly replacing Lowestoft, which the first victor of the new seat had served since 1959.
Political history
Waveney has been a bellwether since its creation, swinging heavily in line with the mood of the nation. Labour's big majority in 1997 reflected the large overall majority in the Commons, and by the 2010 election it had become touted by one published analysis as the seat that the Conservatives needed to win to secure an overall majority. Fittingly, 2010 saw a marginal majority and the national result was a hung parliament with the Conservative Party the largest party. 2010 here was the Labour Party's second highest share of the vote in the narrow, traditional grouping of East Anglia (Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex).
Prominent frontbenchers
Waveney had been held for many years by James Prior Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1970–1972), Leader of the House of Commons (1972–1974), Secretary of State for Employment (1979–1981) then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland during the Heath ministry then the Thatcher ministry with an economic politics considered more centre-ground, then known as forming the wets' ideology.
Bob Blizzard served as a senior Government Whip from 2008 until 2010 when he lost at the election that May.
Constituency profile
The seat is based around the town of Lowestoft, and includes several smaller market towns and seaside resorts in north-east Suffolk. This corner of Suffolk arguably has stronger connections with Norfolk – Norwich is an easier centre to reach than Ipswich – and there have been unsuccessful proposals to alter the county boundary to reflect this.
Workless claimants who were registered jobseekers were in November 2012 higher than the national average of 3.8%, at 4.9% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian. This compares more unfavourably to the regional average of 3.2%.