Rishi Sunak aims to repeat 'underdog' North Yorkshire win in Tory leadership election race

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Mr Sunak admitted he is "probably the underdog" against Ms Truss after a succession of polls of Conservative Party members which have suggested the Foreign Secretary has a convincing lead over him.

But he said he intends to use the same tactics which saw him selected as the Conservative candidate for Richmond in October 2014 when William Hague decided to stand down as the constituency's MP at the 2015 General Election.

Mr Sunak said: "I was not from Yorkshire, let alone not from North Yorkshire.

“It is a very traditional Conservative association. It has produced people like Leon Brittan and William Hague and it was pretty clear the type of person the people expected them to select and indeed the person they probably thought they did want to select and then I showed up and I was absolutely the underdog in that race by a long way."

He said he had turned it around using the same tactics he is employing now.

"I just went and spoke to them and I met lots of them and did lots of meetings and that’s literally what I’m doing now on a bigger scale . . . if I had a copy of the speech that I gave at my selection meeting, there is a huge degree of similarity in it. What I talked about was my story, my values, the things that are important to me, what I want to do with the country and what I wanted to do in North Yorkshire and look, it worked then and I’m hopeful I can repeat that now across the country. It’s the same people, right?"

Last month, Lord Hague, who is backing Mr Sunak in the leadership race, recounted how his successor had impressed local members to carry him to a surprise victory.

Writing in The Times, he said: "I represented Richmond in the Commons for 26 years until 2015, and I will never forget the scene when hundreds of local worthies assembled to choose my successor as the Tory candidate. 'A farmer would be good, or a military man,' some of them said on the way in. 'We need a local candidate,' said others, or: 'Obviously they have to come from Yorkshire, that’s a given'.

"Military men and strong local figures were all available to them. But when they filed out three hours later, they had chosen someone new to farming issues, with no army career, who wasn’t local, not from Yorkshire and was from an ethnic minority and brought up in Southampton. They were stunned but thrilled. They had chosen Rishi Sunak.

"At the election that followed, local independents and Ukip fancied their chances against this newcomer. But they were all routed by Sunak, who turned out to be a highly energetic, bright, emotionally intelligent candidate. I have campaigned with literally thousands of candidates. I have mentored dozens. It was soon apparent that this one was the most assiduous and effective I had ever known. If I said he should visit someone in the hills, he would be there the next day for hours, just listening to them. He has a hunger to learn, to understand. One day, when I suggested he take it easy after a late event, he said he was getting up at 5am to join a farmer milking cows. 'You don’t really have to do that,' I assured him. 'I know,' he said. 'But I really want to know what it’s like. I’ve got to understand for myself'."

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