Battle for votes in Tory stronghold could cause Rishi Sunak's biggest upset yet

It's Cas Lass versus the Brough Boy, and history is on his side. But Rishi Sunak faces the biggest shake-up to his job as Prime Minister in the Selby and Ainsty by-elections, one of three to be held on Thursday, thanks to a Boris Johnson strop and Tory mischief.

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In what should be a rock-solid Tory constituency, Labor Keir Mather is neck and neck with Tory Claire Holmes, days to go.

She is 44, originally the daughter of a miner from Castleford, West Yorkshire, and now a seasoned criminal lawyer.

He is a 25-year-old Oxford history and politics graduate, public affairs adviser to employers' organization CBI, of Brough, Humberside. His parents are guidance counselors and support his vocation.

Both are Westminster novices, although he was a researcher for Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting, and she is an East Riding County Councilor.

The contestants had their say at a Hustings in Selby town center (

Picture:

Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)

Keir is confident he is about to make political history, overturning a majority of 20,137 bequeathed by Boristoady Nigel Adams, who resigned as MP in a fit of anger over 'he didn't get the peerage.

“It looks like a misfit, and we fight it like a misfit,” Keir (the one without a knighthood) tells me on the stump around Selby. After 13 years of Conservative rule, people are looking for new ideas. People here want a fresh start. I was fascinated by politics and the possibility of changing people's lives. The Labor Party seemed to be the best way to bring about this change. »

One poll puts Labor ahead by a fraction, another by 12%. But Keir's strategists privately admit it's pin and tuck.