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> United Kingdom > England > East of England > East of England
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| Established | January 01, 1614 |
| Disbanded | Still Active |
| Contributor | RP |
| Last Modified | RBH May 15, 2021 07:40pm |
| Description |
The major town in this predominantly rural constituency is the market town of Bury St Edmunds. It also includes the other much smaller towns of Stowmarket and Needham Market and a multitude of tiny villages such as Haughley. The decline in the agriculture industry has hit this seat hard, as arable and pig farming, as well as seed, feed and breeding merchants, play a significant part in the local economy. New economic opportunities have been offered by the seat's proximity to Cambridge, which is only 25 miles along the A14. The IT explosion in Cambridge and Bury St Edmunds has provided an influx of business, jobs and people coming to that area. This is a traditional rural England constituency but is less safe a Tory seat than that would ordinarily suggest, courtesy of a strong Labour presence in both Stowmarket and Bury. Labour candidates ran David Ruffley a close race here in both 1997 and 2001 - in the former election they came within 400 votes of winning the seat. However, the Tory vote recovered in 2001 and even a lurch of votes from the Liberal Democrats to Labour was not enough to prevent Mr Ruffley winning again.
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