West Suffolk (UK Parliament constituency)

West Suffolk
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of West Suffolk in Suffolk.
Location of Suffolk within England.
County	Suffolk
Electorate	76,158 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Newmarket, Haverhill and Mildenhall
Current constituency
Created	1997
Member of parliament	Matthew Hancock (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	Central Suffolk
1832–1885
Number of members	Two
Type of constituency	County constituency
Replaced by	Bury St Edmunds (also succeeded itself) North-Western or 'Stowmarket' Division South or 'Sudbury' Division
Created from	Suffolk
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	East of England

West Suffolk is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Matthew Hancock, a Conservative. Between 1832 and 1885 there had also been a constituency, the Western Division of Suffolk that had also been called West Suffolk.

Between the 1832 Reform Act and 1885 there had been a constituency, the Western Division of Suffolk known as West Suffolk, although on different boundaries. Its second creation occurred with Parliamentary approval of the Boundary Commission's third periodic review in time for the 1997 election (the first such review having been in 1945, following the Representation of the People Act 1918 review).

The seat in this time has only been represented by Conservatives with the narrowest majority having been that of 1997 at only 3.8% of the vote, since which the majority has gradually increased to a level seen most commonly in safe seats.

For the 2010 general election, the transition was planned six months before, on 23 November 2009, when the incumbent announced he would not stand again.

Richard Spring was an opposition spokesman for Foreign Affairs (2000-2004) (shadowing a Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister) then Shadow Minister for the Treasury (2004-2005) before being a Vice-Chairman of his party and being elevated to the House of Lords as Lord Risby. Several of his ancestors had previously represented Suffolk in the House of Commons.