Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (UK Parliament constituency)

Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket is a constituency of the House of Commons in the UK Parliament represented since its creation for the 2024 general election by Peter Prinsley of the Labour Party.^[2] The constituency is named for the Suffolk towns of Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket.^[3]

Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket
County constituency for the House of Commons
Interactive map of boundaries from 2024
Boundary of Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket in the East of England
County	Suffolk
Electorate	75,655 (2023)[1]
Major settlements	Bury St Edmunds, Stowmarket, Thurston, Elmswell
Current constituency
Created	2024
Member of Parliament	Peter Prinsley (Labour)
Seats	One
Created from	Bury St Edmunds & West Suffolk (part)

Boundaries

The constituency is composed of the following:

• The District of Mid Suffolk wards of: Chilton; Combs Ford; Elmswell & Woolpit; Onehouse; Rattlesden; St. Peter’s; Stow Thorney; Thurston.
• The District of West Suffolk wards of: Abbeygate; Bardwell; Barningham; Eastgate; Ixworth; Minden; Moreton Hall; Pakenham & Troston; Rougham; St. Olaves; Southgate; Stanton; The Fornhams & Great Barton; Tollgate; Westgate.^[4]

Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket contains the majority of the abolished Bury St Edmunds constituency and a small area to the north transferred from the West Suffolk constituency.^[5]

The constituency covers Bury St Edmunds, Stowmarket and smaller settlements on the A14 corridor.

History

The newly created constituency was notionally a safe Conservative seat, with an estimated majority of 22,085 votes (41.7%) based on the results of the 2019 election. The predecessor seat of Bury St Edmunds had not elected a non-Conservative MP since it elected one Liberal at the 1880 election, and none at all since becoming a single-member constituency in 1885.

However, at the 2024 election the Tories suffered an above-average swing against them of 21.6% and won less than half their vote share from 2019, turning their notional majority of over 22,000 into a Labour majority of 1,452. Along with the party gaining Suffolk Coastal, this was the first time since it won Sudbury in 1945 that Labour had won any Suffolk constituencies not centred on Ipswich or Lowestoft.

Members of Parliament

Bury St Edmunds and West Suffolk prior to 2024

Election		Member	Party
	2024	Peter Prinsley	Labour

Election results

Elections in the 2020s

General election 2024: Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Prinsley	16,745	32.9	+12.1
	Conservative	Will Tanner	15,293	30.1	–32.9
	Reform UK	Scott Hussey	8,595	16.9	N/A
	Green	Emma Buckmaster	5,761	11.3	–1.1
	Liberal Democrats	Peter McDonald	3,154	6.2	+5.1
	Independent	Jeremy Lee	819	1.6	N/A
	Rejoin EU	Richard Baker-Howard	350	0.7	N/A
	Communist	Darren Turner	176	0.4	N/A
Majority			1,452	2.85	N/A
Turnout			50,893	65.6	–3.8
Registered electors			77,599
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	+22.5

Elections in the 2010s

2019 notional result[7]
Party		Vote	%
	Conservative	33,023	62.9
	Labour	10,938	20.8
	Green	6,520	12.4
	Others	1,435	2.7
	Liberal Democrats	565	1.1
Turnout		52,481	69.4
Electorate		75,655

See also

• List of parliamentary constituencies in Suffolk