Voters are “desperate” for a full-time Labour MP and for an end to the Tory psychodrama, the contender vying to replace Boris Johnson has insisted.
Labour candidate Danny Beales told The Mirror the party has a "good shot" next month at snatching Uxbridge and South Ruislip from the Conservatives for the first time.
Mr Beales, 34, said the upcoming vote was a chance for a "fresh start" in the west London seat and "to send a powerful message that we need change in this country".
A by-election is being held after Mr Johnson announced his dramatic resignation last week ahead of the publication of an MPs' report into whether he recklessly misled Parliament over the Partygate scandal.
The move has led to days of internal Tory warfare, with Mr Johnson, Rishi Sunak, and ex-Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries trading bitter public blows over the award of gongs.
Mr Beales, who could now be an MP in a little over a month, said: "I think people are sick and fed up with it to be honest.
"When more and more people are having their mortgages revalued and getting extra bills through the door and just to hear Tories tear chunks out of each in Government - or supposedly in Government - who are responsible for these things, I think it's deeply frustrating.
"The feeling is can we have some adults in the room who are making decisions in the national interests. I find it deeply frustrating, I want this Tory melodrama just to be at an end."
Since the by-election was announced Labour has piled resources into the constituency and hundreds of activists have flocked to the area. Senior frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth and the party's national campaign coordinator Shabana Mahmood have also been canvassing support.
On Wednesday evening Labour will hold a gala dinner launching the campaign with Shadow Cabinet ministers David Lammy, Wes Streeting and Ellie Reeves all present.
Professor John Curtice, a polling expert, said this week the Tories will find the Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat "very difficult to defend".
With the party still trailing Labour in the national polls, he added: "This is simply a must win seat for Sir Keir Starmer".
The Britain Predicts website run by the New Statesman also puts Labour on course for victory with an 11-point lead of the Tories.
Asked about Labour's chances, Mr Beales said: "We're in with a really good chance - a really good shot.
"I don't think we're taking anything for granted. I'm not just going to walk into Parliament, I'm going to have to earn every single vote and that's the approach I've been taking since I was selected in December is going out week after week come rain and now shine.
"We know it has been a historically Conservative seat. We are going to have to win over people who haven't voted Labour before."
Pressed on whether the seat - one of the top 100 targets for Labour - is exactly the sort of area Mr Starmer needs to win for a majority at the next general election, Mr Beales said the party was "making really positive progress all around the country".
He added: "I know it's a must-win seat for me - that's all I know.
"I'm desperate to win here, I grew up here, I'm from the area. I just think this area is desperate for a Labour full-time MP. You go around the place and people feel like they are being forgotten, they feel the services, the hospitals, the schools are crumbling.
"It's an area Labour should win and we can win."
In an attempt to hold the seat the Tories' Chairman Greg Hands is already seeking to highlight the expansion of the controversial Ultra Low Emission Zone in the capital.
Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan has proposed expanding the scheme - to clean up London's air quality - across all London boroughs later this summer.
Mr Beales said it was "certainly an issue that comes up on the doorstep" but pointed out that parts of the constituency has some of the worst air quality in the capital.
He added: "But there are people - particularly in a cost-of-living crisis - who if they are affected... feel that £12.50 a day is another bill that is not very welcome.
"From my perspective it's not the MP locally who will or won't decide on ULEZ, it's the decision of the Mayor. I think what my job will be as a candidate and local MP is to listen to people locally, listen to their concerns, and champion their interests."
But Mr Beales, who was born in the local Hillingdon hospital, stressed the cost-of-living crisis was the number one issue facing voters in Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
"People are paying hundreds of pounds more for exactly the same house they live in. I get it too. I do the weekly shop and it's twice as much as it was last year. It feels like week after week the prices are going up and up. I think for families that's the pressure they've got."
Mr Beales, who has previously spoken about his experience of being made homeless as a child, also said if he makes it to Parliament, said he would want to raise the housing crisis.
"The last Labour Government got people off the streets - we pretty much ended rough sleeping. We were making really positive progress in getting everyone out of B&B accommodation."
"We've gone completely backwards and it's even worse than it was before," he added.
He said the "dream" of owning your own property in Britain now appears to be a "distant memory" and said Labour would make bold progress on building affordable homes.
Mr Beales, who has served as a Camden councillor and charity worker, described the days since it became clear he would be fighting a by-election as a "whirlwind".
The Labour leader Mr Starmer also messaged him, saying: "Good luck, the party's with you".
He said his mother, who was first made homeless after losing her job when he was 14-years-old, is "overjoyed" and "shed a few tears here and there".
"She walked into the paper shop in the morning to get the milk and saw me on one of the papers and suddenly burst into tears.
"I think she's excited, eager, happy to help drive me around."
The advice offered to him from a member of the party who has previously fought in a by-election was "strap yourself in, don't worry and remember to eat".
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