‘Lots of Tories won’t vote’: can Labour really take Selby and Ainsty?

Angela Ormsby, who says she will use her postal vote for Labour, in Selby, North Yorkshire. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Labour activists are quietly hopeful of pulling off a record-breaking win in Rishi Sunak’s backyard by taking the toughest of the three Conservative seats up for grabs next Thursday.

A win in Selby and Ainsty, now a Conservative rural stronghold but one with a mining industry past, would, Labour say, mark the biggest majority the party has overturned at a byelection since the second world war.