Bob Blizzard obituary

The former Labour MP Bob Blizzard, who has died aged 71, won the bellwether parliamentary constituency of Waveney, north Suffolk, in the Labour landslide election that swept Tony Blair into power in 1997, and his Westminster career was encapsulated within the years of the ensuing Labour governments.

Blizzard only narrowly lost the seat in 2010 when the tide of Labour’s popularity had retreated, leading to the coalition under David Cameron, but he was decisively defeated by the Conservative incumbent, Peter Aldous, when he stood once again in 2015.