Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, barrister and lifelong Conservative, was always an unlikely rebel.

But opposition to a catastrophic no-deal Brexit has seen him morph from senior Tory backbencher to parliamentary insurgent, leading to his ejection from the party by Boris Johnson.

Instead of bowing out, Mr Grieve chose to seek re-election in Beaconsfield, a true blue Buckinghamshire seat he has represented since 1997.

“It’s fairly weird, quite frankly,” Mr Grieve tells The Independent as he mounts a campaign to overturn the Tory majority he built over more than 20 years.

Beaconsfield, a prosperous and picturesque rural constituency to the west of London, is facing an election unlike any other in recent times.

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