How serious is Boris Johnson about keeping hold of new Tory territory in the North, Midlands and Wales? The prime minister made an early show of intent this afternoon by appointing Trudy Harrison, the MP for Copeland in Cumbria, as his parliamentary private secretary.
It is a hire of enormous symbolism. Harrison became the first Conservative MP for Copeland – home to the port of Whitehaven and once a Labour stronghold – in 85 years when she was elected at a by-election in March 2017. (The seat voted overwhelmingly for Brexit the previous year.) It was, in hindsight, the first sign that, post-Brexit, the Tories could make serious in-roads on what had once been unshakeable Labour territory.
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