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seat in Scotland, and the eighth in the UK by number of votes.

There were just 328 ballots in it when the SNP’S Calum Kerr beat Conservative John Lamont in 2015.

Traditionally, this part of the Borders has been a Liberal stronghold since it was won by David Steel in 1965.

But in a part of the country that voted two to one to stay part of the United Kingdom in 2014, those who want to stop a second independence referendum are prepared to be tactical.

In local elections the Conservatives gained five councillors across the Borders while the Lib Dems lost four.

“I’ve been the MSP for the last ten years, so people know what they would be getting,” says Mr Lamont, who has resigned his Scottish Parliament seat this time to show voters he is fully committed.

He describes the Scotlandengland border as “an artificial line on the map; our community straddles both sides of it.”

Knocking on doors in the village of Preston outside Duns, down the road from where his parents bought a farm when he started university, Mr Lamont claims Borders voters know a second referendum would distract from issues like health, policing and education – a particular worry in a rural area that struggles to fill teacher vacancies.

But while some are effectively pencilling his name in for the seat, Mr Lamont refuses to make predictions or entertain suggestions that as a close ally of Ruth Davidson and a former

“I’m never confident before elections. It was the same with exams when I was at school. It didn’t matter how hard I worked, I always felt I was up against it”

JOHN LAMONT