Great Yarmouth seat a ‘three-way’ general election battleground

Great Yarmouth could become a three-way political battleground with Labour, Conservatives and Reform UK each confident of victory.

The seat has been held by Conservative Sir Brandon Lewis since 2010, who is not standing this time.

The former Northern Ireland secretary and ex-party chairman increased his majority to 17,663 in 2019.

Labour, which held the seat for 13 years from 1997, says the constituency is a target seat, while Reform UK claims opinion polls show it is ahead of Labour.

Key issues in the seaside seat include immigration, investment in skilled employment, housing and infrastructure.

The constituency has benefited in recent years from £121m being spent on building the Herring Bridge, and further central government “levelling up” investment via its Future High Streets Fund and Town Deal.

The new Conservative candidate James Clark lives in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, but has pledged to relocate with his wife and son to the Norfolk seat if he wins.

“I think it’s going to be very close,” he said.

“I’ve had people who have opened the door and said ‘we are absolutely voting for you, James. We are committed Conservatives; we’re keeping Yarmouth blue’.

“I’m also having people say ‘look, what have the Conservatives delivered? Am I better off than I was?’.

“I try and counter that and say we’ve had coronavirus; we’ve had the war in Ukraine.

“[That] has been financially, economically depressing but I do genuinely believe the Conservatives have a plan to push past that.”

Labour’s candidate is Keir Cozens. Born and raised in East Anglia and moved to the borough after he was selected by the local party in August.

“It’s the basics that are not working,” he said.

“I’ve lost count about the number of conversations I’ve had about people not being able to get a dentist’s appointment.

“Of course there are bigger issues as well; people do want more secure jobs and are worried about antisocial behaviour.

“What they want are serious plans; serious options to how we are going to tackle some of these serious issues.”

Rupert Lowe is standing for Reform UK.

The former chairman of Southampton Football Club lives in Gloucestershire, but has promised he would move to the constituency if he wins on 4 July.

He said a “primary” issue for his campaign was “obviously immigration”.

“I think crime is high up the list, and really the most important thing is that government now no longer serves the interests of the British electorate,” he said.

“It’s become a rather huge, expensive beast to run and I think it has its own interests at the top of the agenda.

“And that’s wrong; it should have the interests of the electorate at the top of the agenda and I think most of the electorate has had enough.”

The Green Party candidate Trevor Rawson lives in Bradwell and is a Tai Chi instructor working with the NHS to help people living with long-term pain conditions.

“There’s a lot of concern about health, particularly about appointments at doctors, hospitals and dentists,” he said. “The environment; the people of Hemsby literally thrown into the sea by the government.

“It’s travel, transport, clean transport, but in particular, housing. A lot of people here live in very poor conditions and there’s an extreme lack of social housing.

“If we give people a decent place to live, they start to get hope and when they get real hope, we can start to get real change.”

Fionna Tod is standing for the Liberal Democrats which has never held a seat on the borough or county council within the constituency boundary.

She lives in Cambridgeshire, but has also pledged to relocate, citing the coast as a great place to raise her family.

“Anyone who has looked at the make-up of Great Yarmouth Borough Council [and] the last 100 years of elections knows the Liberal Democrats are unlikely to win [here],” she said.

“But that’s freeing because I think people can be more candid and honest with me, so I have to say that I think there is some sense for a need for change.

“People are also sick of their MP being in cabinet and government roles that means they’re not really speaking out for Great Yarmouth.

“But I don’t want to be negative and I think there is a sense of optimism and that Great Yarmouth is on the up… but it just needs some of those big issues addressing.”

Also standing is Catherine Blaiklock for the English Democrats, and Independent candidates Paul Brown and Claire Roullier.

Full lists of candidates in all constituencies are available here.