Boris’s Brexit chief is man to hold the key Red Wall seat, say Tories

FORMER chief Brexit negotiator David Frost was last night hailed as the man who could win a key by-election for the Conservatives.

Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake led calls for Lord Frost to give up his peerage and stand in Wakefield, seen as a test of whether Boris Johnson’s party can hold on to so-called Red Wall seats won from Labour in the Midlands and the north of England in 2019.

Last night, Mr Hollinrake said it would be ‘fantastic’ if Lord Frost stood in the Brexit supporting West Yorkshire seat.

He added: ‘I worked with him in the Cabinet Office and have the highest regard for him.’

The Tories are defending a narrow 3,358 majority in Wakefield. Party sources are concerned that in the wake of the ‘Partygate’ row and cost of living crisis the seat, long held by Labour, will revert to Sir Keir Starmer’s party.

The by-election was triggered last week after sitting Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan announced he would resign after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.

But Mr Hollinrake said the Tory chances of holding the seat would increase if someone of Lord Frost’s standing was the candidate. He added: ‘His profile would be very helpful in terms of our electoral chances.’

Lord Frost himself declined to comment last night, but friends hinted he could be happy to swap the Lords for the Commons.

One said: ‘The House of Lords is not the place where you can do real politics. He still has so much to offer.

‘If anyone can win in Wakefield in these difficult circumstances, it’s someone with that sort of name recognition.’

Tory hopes have also been buoyed after ex-Labour MP Mary Creagh, who held the seat for 14 years until losing in 2019, ruled herself out of standing in the by-election.