Nigel Pickover, editor of the Evening Star, has paid tribute to Ipswich MP Jamie Cann who died earlier this week.

The MP was a personal friend of the editor and wrote a column for the Ipswich Evening Star, Jamie Cann’s View from Westminster.

The 55-year-old former schoolteacher had been in hospital for nine days, and leaves a widow, Rosie, who was also his parliamentary secretary, and two sons.

In his personal tribute on the Evening Star’s website, Mr Pickover talks of the relationship that the MP had with the paper, and describes him as “not perfect by any means, but a man who dutifully took on the initials MP, but who was far more than Member of Parliament.”

Mr Pickover said: “Marvellous Partner, Magnificent Parent, Memorable Person. I do not use these words lightly.

“In the best part of a decade that I knew him, charismatic Jamie proved himself to be a real people’s champion, a real man of the people.

“Whether fighting a campaign, or at his popular surgeries on a Saturday morning, Jamie was at ease with his people, his ever-present Rosie and, most importantly, with himself.”