Electoral Calculus described the seat as a "Somewhere", characterised by older, less educated voters and support for Brexit.

[3] Lowestoft was generally Labour-voting, because of its recent history as a declining seaside resort, fishing and industrial town.

The Green Party overtook the Conservatives in the overlapping East Suffolk Council in 2023 for the first time.

2010 here was the Labour Party's second highest share of the vote in the narrow, traditional grouping of East Anglia (Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex).

Waveney had been held for many years by James Prior, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1970–1972), Leader of the House of Commons[n 3] (1972–1974), Secretary of State for Employment (1979–1981), then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland during the Thatcher ministry, with an economic politics considered more centre-ground, then known as forming the wets' ideology.