Central Suffolk and North Ipswich General Election 2024: Conservatives hold onto seat

The Conservatives have held onto the Central Suffolk and North Ipswich constituency in the General Election.

Patrick Spencer, who was a senior adviser at the Department of Education, won 15,144 votes, 4,290 more than the Labour runner-up, Kevin Craig, who secured 10,854 — Mr Craig was suspended from his Party last month after betting against himself to lose the election.

Mr Spencer is now the third Tory to represent the constituency, which was blue between 1997 and April 2024, when the previous MP, Dr Dan Poulter, defected to the Labour Party.

He said he was delighted and excited to take on the role and there was still a huge amount of work to do to regain the trust of voters.

Mr Spencer added: "This was always going to be a very difficult campaign making the case for people to vote Conservative, but I want to be the first person to say that my Party can stand tall tonight on its achievements in Government over the last 14 years.

"For too long people have felt that they have not had proper representation in Parliament, for too long our services have been starved of attention and appropriate funding, that stops now."

The runner-up did not show up during the count.

Nationally, the Conservatives are having a rough time, with Labour set to form the next Government with a large majority.

Other results included:
- Charlie Caiger (Independent): 366
- Tony Gould (Reform): 8,806
- Mike Hallatt (Independent): 194
- Brett Mickelburgh (Liberal Democrat): 5,407
- Dan Pratt (Green): 5,652

Mike Hallatt said: "It was always going to be Conservative, let's face it, but it's not all doom and gloom for Independents."

Mr Hallatt also added he would think about joining a Party in future election cycles.