‘People assume we will win by an absolute mile’: Labour fears voter complacency

The Labour candidate for Shoreham, Tom Rutland talking to Wendy Aldrich, a constituent, last week. Photograph: Andy Hall/The Observer

Tom Rutland is sitting in a cafe in Shoreham-by-Sea reflecting on what drives him to want to become a Labour MP. He was just 18 when the party lost power to the Tories under David Cameron in 2010.

“I have spent my whole adult life knowing nothing else but a Tory government,” he says. “During that entire time real wages have not risen at all. Things have to change.”