Only the Lib Dems can unseat Rishi Sunak here in Richmond & Northallerton - Yorkshire Post Letters

As anyone who lives here in the Richmond & Northallerton constituency knows, Labour don’t have a hope of winning here in Rishi Sunak's constituency. The national polls are just that, national projections based on the 2019 results with a swing applied to reflect what is happening at a macro level.

Any idea that Labour are within touching distance of toppling Rishi Sunak is total nonsense.

A more accurate read can be garnered from looking at the pattern of voting in the last North Yorkshire Council elections, the most recent hard data available that is separated out by constituency.

A glance there shows clearly that Labour trailed way back in third place with just 2,786 votes. It was the Liberal Democrats, with double the support that Labour mustered, who were the runaway challengers to the Conservatives here. Indeed, Labour failed to win even a single councillor in the entire constituency.

If data isn’t your thing, then maybe consider the only evidence that really matters, which is what people are saying right now on the doorsteps. Pick any street in the patch and talk to people there. You’ll hear loud and clear that, while Sunak’s star is clearly on the wane there is most definitely no love for Labour either.

People want change and both the two larger parties are being dismissed as just more of the same old Punch & Judy show.

Some Tory hardliners are shifting towards Reform. However, the majority are moderate, life long Conservatives who would never vote Labour but are considering the Lib Dems this time round.

Labour can’t win here but they could stop the Lib Dems winning. And that would be a real opportunity missed for our area.