Liz Truss once advised Rory Stewart to “stop being interesting”. She had a point. By the time he became an MP in 2010, he’d already been deputy governor of an Iraqi province, walked through Afghanistan just after the Twin Towers fell and later commanded a besieged compound in Iraq knowing he’d be executed should the defences be breached. Brad Pitt bought the screen rights to one of his books, earmarking Orlando Bloom to play him in the film.
When Stewart entered parliament, we on the opposition benches were relieved to see that he was only 5ft 8in and (by his own description) scrawny. Another four inches and the Tories would have been unstoppable.
