‘It’s thanks to my amazing wife I am still in this race’

Rory Stewart says his partner must take the plaudits for social media-savvy campaign

They married in 2012.

“As soon as I said I’m thinking of doing this, she said, OK, I’ll take six weeks off work to help,” Mr Stewart says of his initial conversation with his wife about his intention to stand.

“I said, ‘You do realise I don’t have a single supporter?’ She said, ‘You’ll be fine.’ And actually, that’s been really wonderful.”

Mr Stewart, a former Army officer and diplomat, became the first Cabinet minister to declare that he would throw his hat in the ring for a chance to succeed Theresa May, on May 5. Barely known among the public, and with just four days’ experience in the Cabinet, his bid was dismissed by many MPs.

But on Thursday he defied his detractors by gaining 19 votes in the first round of the Tory leadership contest, earning him a place in the third round and leaving three more experienced Cabinet ministers, who did not make the cut, in his wake.

He believes that Mr Johnson’s camp view him as a potential “nightmare” opponent in the final round, because of the “insurgent” nature of his campaign. “They would rather have a more safe and steady pair of hands.”

Last week’s result was a far cry from initial conversations with MPs last month.

“I genuinely had moments where I almost thought this can’t be done, where I thought, ‘Am I really going to be able to get any of these people across the line?’” he said. He is grateful to initial supporters, such as David Gauke, his former boss at the Ministry of Justice, saying: “It takes quite a lot of courage and faith to put yourself behind the 100-1 candidate.”

Mr Stewart courts comparisons between his attempt to challenge Boris Johnson, the clear favourite, to David squaring up to Goliath.

“We’re not professional people,” he says, comparing his campaign to the well-resourced and highly disciplined operation around Mr Johnson, 54.

“And one of the reasons we’re

‘I said, “You do realise I don’t have a single supporter?” She said, “You’ll be fine.” That’s been wonderful’

nimble, which is why I like this David and Goliath comparison, is that it’s the definition of an insurgent campaign.”

The MP for Penrith and The Border, who was first elected in 2010, proudly describes how he inadvertently stole a march on his leadership rivals with a spontaneous proposal to introduce a mandatory national citizens service for all young people.

A member of another campaign, he says, told him: “‘You got ahead of us on the ... idea. We’ve been debating it for months, and then you put it out. And then we realised we couldn’t put it out any more.’

“Whereas in fact all I’d done is put a camera up when I was in Derby, and got 1.4million views.”

Getting out of Westminster to speak to members of the public was part of Mr Stewart’s strategy to ultimately win over MPs.

“I took a risk, which was to go out and start talking to people – and, in a sense, take the risk of proving to members of parliament that it’s possible to reach out to the public and to make a Conservative message very popular.”

Following Thursday’s vote – when Andrea Leadsom, Esther McVey and Mark Harper were all ousted from the contest – Mr Stewart senses a new momentum.

“I’m certainly now beginning to get many more texts, many more calls from MPs, many more people saying everything from ‘Dear boy, how very interesting, well done’ through to, ‘Can I come and talk?’.

“So we’re just beginning now to get momentum, and we’ll see. We’ll see.”

Mr Stewart takes delight in the “absurd memes”, or comical images and videos, posted on social media by supporters.

“Can I show you?” He turns to his young parliamentary aide, who has stepped up to the role of press officer in the campaign, asking: “Have you got the David and Goliath? The one that