Portillo moment? Don't bet on it but, yes, my seat's on a knife-edge

Hunt blasts Labour on rail nationalisation and the NHS

- Nicholas Cecil

JEREMY HUNT vowed today that the Tories will "defend the Blue Wall brick by brick" as he fights to retain his Surrey seat which is on a "knife edge".

The Liberal Democrats are seeking to oust him in what they hope will be a "Portillo moment" of a heavy Conservative defeat in the early hours of July 5.

But he defiantly told Lib-Dem leader Sir Ed Davey, a Cabinet colleague during the Cameron-Clegg coalition years: "Don't bet the farm on it. Jeremy Hunt is no Michael Portillo, for better or worse." Then-defence secretary Mr Portillo was famously toppled in Enfield Southgate during the Sir Tony Blair landslide victory in 1997.

With the Tories in the low to mid-twenties in polls, they are suddenly having to fight to keep control of a string of seats in their traditional Blue Wall stronghold of southern England, including the Godalming and Ash constituency where Mr Hunt is standing.

He said: "We will defend the Blue Wall brick by brick. If seats like this are anything to go by, people in affluent commuter areas like Godalming want to vote Conservative but they need to know that we are working hard for their vote and that they are not being taken for granted." Speaking to the Standard, Mr Hunt:

◆ Branded Labour's railways renationalisation plan a "phenomenal waste of money".

◆ Said it would not make the "blindest bit of difference" if Boris Johnson came to help him campaign.

◆ Denied Kwasi Kwarteng's "miniBudget" was to blame for homeowners' soaring mortgage bills.