Can Labour's history man storm the Tories' Yorkshire stronghold?

IT'S the Cas Lass versus the Brough Boy, and history is on her side.

- PAUL ROUTLEDGE

But Rishi Sunak faces the biggest upset of his premiership in the Selby and Ainsty by-election, one of three taking place on Thursday, thanks to a Boris Johnson strop and Tory sleaze.

In what should be a rock-solid Tory constituency, Labour's Keir Mather is neck-and-neck with Conservative Claire Holmes, with just a few days to go.

She is 44, originally a miner's daughter from Castleford, West Yorkshire, and now a hotshot criminal barrister.

He is a 25-year-old Oxford history and politics graduate, a public affairs adviser with employers' organisation CBI, from Brough, East Yorks. His parents are careers advisers and back his vocation.

Both are Westminster novices, though he had a stint as a researcher for Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting, and she is an East Riding county councillor.

Keir is convinced he's on the brink of making political history, by overturning a 20,137 majority bequeathed by Boristoady Nigel Adams, who quit as MP in a fit of pique over not getting a peerage.

"This feels like a marginal, and we're fighting it like a marginal," Keir (the one without a knighthood) tells me on the stump around Selby. "After 13 years of Tory rule, people are looking for fresh ideas. People here want a fresh start.

"I've been fascinated by politics and the opportunity to change people's lives. The Labour Party seemed the best way to make that change."

POSTERS

One poll put Labour ahead by a fraction, another by 12%.

But Keir's strategists admit privately that it's nip and tuck.

He should be up against a formidable vote-harvesting machine but when I go to the Tory campaign HQ in Selby, it is two men with a laptop.

Nor is there much visibility in the streets. No placards, no posters. I show a photo of the candidate to voters in the town and not one recognises her.