Labour's Tony Wright is proud to represent the area which he can rightly call home. Having been brought up on Great Yarmouth's Middlegate estate, he became an apprentice engineer at Erie Electronics.

Labour's Tony Wright is proud to represent the area which he can rightly call home. Having been brought up on Great Yarmouth's Middlegate estate, he became an apprentice engineer at Erie Electronics.

Married to Barbara, who works locally for Norfolk Mental Health Care, he was a borough councillor during two decades, rising to leader of the council before he became MP in 1997.

The father of two, who also has a step-daughter, says his message during the campaign will be simple: Look at Labour's achievements locally. He said: 'I'll ask people to compare Yarmouth today to what it was like 13 years ago, and I'll challenge them to say there has not been significant improvement.'

Mr Wright, who is proud of his personal contribution to the changes, said his vision for the next five years would be to continue the regeneration process that had already seen such achievements as the seafront revamp and the building of the outer harbour.

He said: 'I see my role as working to maintain the employment we have got, helping firms expand and encouraging new businesses to the town. With the new harbour, in two or three years, if we take the opportunity, Yarmouth will be a completely different place.'

Mr Wright said despite the worst worldwide recession for decades, the town was weathering the economic storm better than many other places.

'Local unemployment is running at just over 6.2pc, which is still too much, but that compares to 12.5pc in the recession of 1992 and more than 19pc in 1989,' he said.

At the 2005 general election Mr Wright polled 18,850 votes.