1. Overview

Jack Abbott is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Ipswich, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election for the Ipswich constituency, Abbott won 19,099 votes, representing 43.3% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Tom Hunt, received 11,696 votes (26.5%), while the Reform UK candidate, Tony Love, secured 7,027 votes (15.9%). Abbott was duly elected with a majority of 7,403.

Ipswich had a turnout of 58.5%, which was down from 65.6% in 2019.

Historically, the Ipswich seat has been considered marginal, changing hands between the Labour and Conservative parties multiple times in recent decades. Labour held the seat from 1992 until 2010, the Conservatives held it from 2010 until 2017, Labour regained it in 2017. The Conservatives won it back in 2019 before Labour’s victory in 2024.

The immediate predecessor MP for Ipswich was Tom Hunt, representing the Conservative Party. Other recent MPs include Sandy Martin (Labour, 2017-2019) and Ben Gummer (Conservative, 2010-2017). Notable MPs from earlier periods include Dingle Foot (Labour, 1957-1970), who served in the government of prime minister Harold Wilson.

Political Career

Abbott serves as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (since September 2025). A PPS acts as an unpaid parliamentary assistant, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs. The role is widely regarded as the first step on the ministerial ladder. Although they cannot speak for the government in debates, a PPS is bound by collective responsibility and becomes part of the so-called “payroll vote”, expected to support the official line in all divisions.

Responding to this appointment, Abbott stated: “Ipswich is being revived by sport, arts and culture – now I get to work on all of this on a national scale too.”

Previously, Abbott was PPS to the leader of the House of Lords from February to September 2025.

In the wake of the 2024 general election, which saw Labour returned to power after 14 years in opposition, Abbott was appointed by 10 Downing Street as a “mission champion” for the East – a role intended to cut across departmental boundaries and support Labour’s programme for “national renewal”. These “missions”, first set out in 2023 and subsequently given less prominence, included boosting economic growth, reducing NHS waiting times, tackling crime, establishing a publicly owned clean energy company and expanding educational opportunity.

Abbott served on the backbench business committee from October 2024 to March 2025. The backbench business committee is a select committee of the House of Commons that has the responsibility for scheduling debates on days set aside for “backbench business”. Established in 2010 as part of the Wright reforms, its creation helped transfer some control of the parliamentary timetable from the government to backbench MPs for the first time.

Abbott was also a member of the public bill committee for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill from January 2025 to March 2025.

Abbott is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for Down syndrome, and renewable and sustainable energy.

Abbott delivered his maiden speech on 25 July 2024 during a debate on the code of conduct and modernisation committee. In it, he claimed Ipswich as the “oldest continuous town in England”, noting: “I presume that, as I am now stating it as fact in parliament, it now becomes true.”

Abbott added: “As a Labour Government, we cannot let the suffering of vulnerable children and their families continue. It will be my personal mission in this place to fight this inequality and injustice.

“If I can make one final plea on this issue, as a former teaching assistant and proud GMB MP, I urge that when we talk about the crisis in retention and recruitment of teachers, we include specialist and support staff in the conversation. They are crucial to breaking down barriers to opportunity, too…

“I would like to touch on another subject that is incredibly important to me: the energy transition. This is not just an environmental necessity but an economic imperative. It can boost our economy, reduce bills, ensure greater security and deliver the well paid jobs that we need.”

Before entering parliament, Abbott served as a Labour councillor on Suffolk County Council for the Bridge ward in Ipswich between 2017 and 2021.

Abbott stood as the Labour candidate for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich in the 2015 general election, finishing second to the Conservative incumbent, Dan Poulter.

Abbott was selected as Labour’s candidate for the Ipswich constituency in 2022, defeating Alex Mayer, who would go on to become the MP for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard.

Abbott reportedly supported Liz Kendall’s 2015 Labour leadership campaign and backed Owen Smith in the 2016 contest, after incumbent Jeremy Corbyn suffered a no-confidence vote among Labour MPs.

In the 2016 contest, Abbott said he could not see Jeremy Corbyn, the incumbent leader, winning an election.

He commented: “If I am honest I don’t feel that Jeremy Corbyn, although he is a principled and a good man, is the person to win seats we need to win, in places like Ipswich, Great Yarmouth and the Waveney to form a Labour government.”

Political views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Oppose leadership election: In May 2026, Abbott was among the over 100 Labour MPs who signed a joint statement insisting it was “no time for a leadership contest.” The letter was an intervention in the political crisis engulfing Keir Starmer’s premiership, after Labour suffered heavy losses in the 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru. It was organised as a counterweight to a mounting rebellion that had seen high-profile figures, including some ministers, call for Starmer’s resignation.

The statement read: “Last week we had a devastatingly tough set of election results. It shows we have a hard job ahead to win back trust from the electorate.

“That job needs to start today – with all of us working together to deliver the change the country needs.

“We must focus on that. This is no time for a leadership contest.”

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Abbott was one of 175 Labour MPs who nominated Bridget Phillipson for the party’s deputy leadership in September 2025. The election followed the resignation of Angela Rayner, who stepped down as deputy prime minister and deputy party leader after an investigation into her tax affairs. It marked the first time since 2007 that Labour had held a deputy leadership contest while in government.

Phillipson, the serving education secretary, was widely viewed as the candidate favoured by Downing Street and the party leadership. She secured 175 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), comfortably exceeding the 80 required to reach the final ballot. She was ultimately defeated by Lucy Powell.

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Abbott voted in favour of the government’s flagship welfare bill at second reading. The vote came after ministers agreed to significant concessions to avoid defeat via a mass rebellion of Labour MPs on 1 July 2025.

Assisted dying

Abbott voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at second reading (November 2024). However, he voted in favour of the bill at third reading.

Abbott was the only MP who switched from voting against the bill to voting in favour at third reading. Meanwhile, 14 MPs went from in favour to against. 15 went from in favour to abstaining.

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Abbott voted in favour of a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Before Politics

Born on 18 October 1990, Abbott grew up in Suffolk. He was educated at Debenham High School and Framlingham College.

He studied history at the University of Sheffield, graduating in 2012.

Before entering parliament, Abbott worked in communications and public affairs roles, including for the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology and PLMR Communications. He also worked as a teaching assistant in an Ipswich school.

Trivia

In his first session of prime minister’s questions in July 2024, Abbott asked a question of the prime minister.

He stated: “Unlike [Ipswich’s] friends over the border in Norfolk [Norwich City Football Club], we also now have a premier league football team again.”

He added: “Can the prime minister set out to this House the steps that he will take to revive town centres like Ipswich’s?”

Starmer responded: “I am going to resist the temptation that he puts in front of me to choose between Ipswich and Norwich, but on town centres, he is right that we need vibrant high streets. We need to make the change that we were voted in to bring about.”

Abbott referenced the reaction to the exchange in his maiden speech, lightly poking fun at former Labour cabinet minister Ed Balls. Balls served as chairman of Norwich City Football Club from 2015 to 2018.

Abbott said: “Corners of social media instead focused on a very gentle joke I had made, when I pointed out that my home county of Suffolk once again had a premier league football team, unlike our friends north of the border in Norfolk.

“One keyboard warrior in particular took umbrage at that. His name is Ed Balls, and apparently he used to work here. He said that Norwich has had a 15-year unbeaten run in the old farm derby – a run that will now, sadly, be extended due to Ipswich being promoted to the premier league and Norwich getting knocked out in the play-offs last season.”

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