Downing Street and CCHQ will be perturbed by the continuing run of men being selected in the safer constituencies.
All of the final three impressed in a selection contest with no clear frontrunner.
The Prime Minister must make up his mind whether or not to see through a policy to stop the small boats – now an issue of profound symbolic importance.
Local pride in towns like Blyth is wounded at every turn by evidence of neglect, shoddiness and former greatness.
She voted for Davis in 2005, and her hero is Airey Neave: “The escape from Colditz is I think probably the coolest thing any British politician has ever done.”
Only nine communities in England have royal status as conferred by the monarch – and none are further north than Sutton Coldfield.