Jack Abbott starts elections campaign for Ipswich seat

Jack Abbott will be standing for the Ipswich seat in this parliamentary election and on Thursday set out his hopes for the town's future. 

His key manifesto points include being part of a potential Labour government focussed on improving public services.

He added that Ipswich was not alone in having a town centre with closed shops.

He said: "Our town centre isn’t where we want it to be, but we need a Labour Government that will make the changes to support local businesses and an MP who will talk up the town and seize the opportunities on offer.

“That’s why Labour will reform business rates, give councils strong new powers to bring empty shops on their high streets back into use and deliver a greater police presence."

He promised to proactively work locally to help set up new shops in the town.

The Labour candidate promised to work proactively to bring businesses to the town centre (Image: Shikhar Talwar)

In terms of housing, he said that the Conservative government had "failed on every metric", from high mortgages to lack of housebuilding. 

He promised that a Labour government would bring "the archaic and unfair leasehold system to an end".

The Labour candidate started his campaign on Thursday by bringing forth two vans with LED hoardings that were rolled throughout the town.

On the first day of the campaign, he said: "I am grateful for all the support I’ve been given so far, and people clearly want change, but we have a month to go until the election, and we are going to keep working hard for each and every vote.”

The seat Mr Abbott is contesting for is currently held by Conservative candidate Tom Hunt who will be defending a majority of 5,479 votes on July 4.

This is the largest Conservative majority seen in the town since the war.

Mr Hunt, who won the seat from Labour's Sandy Martin in 2019, is also out campaigning and distributing leaflets for the upcoming elections.