‘People are looking for change’: Labour eyes byelection clean sweep as Tories go to ground

Spectres of Nadine Dorries and Chris Pincher haunt Conservatives in Mid Beds and Tamworth, as Labour claims momentum going its way

Alistair Strathern hates the photo chosen to be splashed across his advertising boards. Good poster", shouts a schoolboy between mouthfuls of crisps at the gently blushing Labour candidate across Dunstable Street in the centre of Ampthill, one of the 48 towns and villages that make up the constituency of Mid Bedfordshire. I look smug," Strathern explains of his discomfort. Maybe you think I always look smug but I don't think I look that smug."

It's a shame that Strathern feels this way as his boards are absolutely everywhere. Like a constituency-sized Where's Wally?", Strathern's face pops up from out of hedges, emerges smiling from behind trees and stares back from front gardens just daring a chastened voter to have the gall not to back Sir Keir Starmer's Labour party.