Labour candidate seeks the ultimate 'Portillo moment'

Tom Wilson, who hopes to become the first person to defeat a sitting PM, believes rural England is abandoning the Tories

- DAVID MADDOX

The man who could become the face of the greatest shock in British political history has claimed that, whether he wins or not,there is a “bubbling undercurrent” desire for change among the electorate which could see former Tory strongholds fall.

Tom Wilson is the 29-year-old Labour candidate running against Rishi Sunak in Richmond and Northallerton who, according to polls last week, could be the first electoral “king killer” – the first person to defeat a sitting prime minister in a general election.

He became a person of interest for the entire political establishment when an MRP poll suggested Mr Sunak’s constituency was “too close to call”. For everyone looking for the so-called “Portillo moment” of this election – named after the shock defeat of Michael Portillo in the 1997 Tory collapse – this looks unbeatable.

In his first major interview with a national newspaper, Mr Wilson told The Independent that the feedback he is getting on the doorstep in the Yorkshire constituency he grew up in suggests the ultimate electoral shock may be possible. But the fact that the Tories are reportedly sending extra bodies to help the prime minister hold on to a seat he won with a majority north of 27,000 in 2019 is a victory in itself.

“It feels like years ago [when] I first made my application,” Mr Wilson said. “It was very much about making them work for it.

And actually, we’ve already achieved that. So yeah, in that sense we’ve already won.”

He laughed about the prospect of activists being bussed up from CCHQ (Conservative Campaign Headquarters) in London to save the prime minister.