Suffolk Coastal (sometimes known as Coastal Suffolk) is a parliamentary constituency in the county of Suffolk, England, which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP).

Constituency profile

The constituency is in the far East of England, and borders the North Sea. The main town is Felixstowe, which is a commercial port for imports and exports. The ONS considers Woodbridge to form part of the extended Ipswich Built-up Area. The seat includes the seaside destinations of Aldeburgh and Southwold. Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 2.0% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.

History

This East Anglian constituency was created for the 1983 general election from eastern parts of the abolished county constituencies of Eye, and Sudbury and Woodbridge, including the towns of Felixstowe and Woodbridge. Its initial boundaries were coterminous with the recently created District of Suffolk Coastal. The current constituency area includes three former borough constituencies which sent their own MPs to Parliament until abolished as 'rotten boroughs' by the Great Reform Act, 1832 – Aldeburgh, Dunwich and Orford. The seat was held from its creation until the 2010 election by the Conservative John Gummer who had previously represented the former seat of Eye from 1979. He was the Secretary of State for the Environment for four years during the second Major ministry and before that was for four years the Minister of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. He stood down in 2010 and was elevated to the House of Lords as Lord Deben. The MP between 2010 and 2024 was Conservative Thérèse Coffey, who served in the Sunak ministry as the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. She also previously served as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions between 2019 and 2022, and as the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care during the short-lived Truss ministry from September to October 2022. However, the Conservatives would lose the seat in the 2024 general election, with Labour's Jenny Riddell-Carpenter being voted in as the MP, with a majority of just over 1,000.

Boundaries and boundary changes

1983–1997

1997–2010

''Westernmost areas included in the new constituency of Central Suffolk and North Ipswich. Extended northwards to include three wards from the District of Waveney, transferred from the constituency of Waveney.''

2010–2024

Marginal changes due to revision of local authority wards. NB on 1 April 2019, the District of Suffolk Coastal was abolished and absorbed into the newly established District of East Suffolk.

Current

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): Largely unchanged, except the inclusion of Halesworth in the newly created constituency of Waveney Valley.

Members of Parliament

Sudbury & Woodbridge and Eye prior to 1983

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Elections in the 2010s

Tony Love was originally standing as the Brexit Party candidate for this constituency.

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s