'I think we have to prepare ourselves for the prospect of a Keir Starmer government' –Suella Braverman on visit to region

"Listen, we're all fighting to save our country from Labour, and I'm fighting 10 out of 10, with everything I've got, to prevent this country from being ruined by a Labour government."

Do you think the Prime Minister is doing a good job?

"Every election campaign is incredibly challenging, I have fought in election campaigns since 1997, and this is one of the tougher ones, there is no doubt about that, we have seen the polls, we can't ignore those polls, we are all fighting as one team, we are fighting to stop Labour getting into power."

We're at the Old Glasshouse Sports Bar in Dudley, where Suella Braverman is rallying support for Marco Longhi's bid to be re-elected as the town's Conservative MP. And if the reaction in the beer garden is anything to go by, you can't help but wonder whether the diehard true blues would have preferred to see the former home secretary as their leader.

"It's neck-and-neck, but I think we're just shading it," Mr Longhi tells her.

Also turning out to lend his support is former Ukip MEP Bill Etheridge, who could yet play a crucial role in this key battleground seat.

According to UK Polling Report, Mr Longhi has a 2.9 per cent lead over his Labour rival Sonia Kumar, with Reform UK's Andrew Southall polling 13.8 per cent.

However a separate poll by Yougov shows a five per cent lead for Labour, with Reform picking up 23 per cent of the vote. Mr Longhi has frequently warned that a split in the right-of-centre vote could hand the seat to Labour.

Does Mrs Braverman seriously believe that the Conservatives can win the election?

"I think, you see the polls, and the only poll that does count is the poll on election day," she tells the Express & Star. "I know it's a cliche, but it is true.

"They look very concerning at the moment, and I think we have to prepare ourselves for the prospect of a Keir Starmer government.

"What I think is really important is ensuring that strong Conservative MPs are returned to parliament, so that there is a meaningful opposition.

Mr Longhi adds: "In these sorts of situations, you do an options analysis to consider all possible outcomes, and as Suella has just said, my focus is relentlessly on Dudley and Dudley people, that has always been the case."

Given that he has considered the possibility of a substantial Labour majority by this time next week, how would Mr Longhi feel about Mrs Braverman becoming the new leader of the opposition?

"I would be delighted to see Suella as leader, everybody I speak to on the doorstep always looks up to Suella. Obviously, the Conservative Party has a range of candidates who would make a good leader, we are from a traditional Conservative."

Mrs Braverman famously said that she dreamed of the day that the first flight of asylum seekers would take off for Rwanda. Given that Sir Keir Starmer has said he would scrap the scheme, the chances of her seeing her dream come to fruition look remote, to say the least.

"The concept of the Rwanda plan is the right one, we need to have effective deterrents, people are dying in the Channel to get to the United Kingdom illegally, that's a crisis, and therefore we need to do everything necessary to stop people from dying and the needless loss of life in the Channel," she says.

"The people-smuggling gangs are the ones who are profiteering out of the people coming into the country illegally, a deterrence in the form of the Rwanda scheme that means if you come to the mainland UK, you will not be able to stay here, will be relocated humanely and properly to another safe country, Rwanda, is exactly the model that will work, and it's something similar to what worked in Australia to control their maritime immigration several years ago.

"The concept is the right one, I've been calling for many months, as has Marco, for a robust delivery mechanism of that concept, which means effectively leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, cutting off all of the individual claims which enable people to game the system, to play the courts to use the human rights laws against the British people, effectively, in a totally immoral and unjust way.

"The concept is the right one, I disagreed with the Prime Minister on how he went about delivering it.

"I very much will keep calling for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, that is the only way we can properly take control of our borders, and properly take control of our laws, and finish off the job of Brexit. Fundamentally we have still got a foreign court in Strasbourg controlling our borders.

"We saw in June 2022 when the court in Strasbourg intervened at the 11th hour pursuant to an opaque process by an un-named judge to thwart a democratically elected government's will to get the flights off to Rwanda. That was a gross undermining of the Government's ability to control its borders, that is an example of the egregious behaviour of the European Court of Human Rights.

"People here in Dudley voted to leave the European Union in high numbers, I voted to leave the European Union, and Marco voted to leave the European Union, we cannot continue our membership if we are serious about controlling our borders."

Mr Longhi caused something of a stir when he announced recently that he would not assist asylum seekers with their claims.

"I make no apology for putting Dudley people first," he says.

"It is a mistake that a lot of MPs when they reach parliament, they make. They like to be Westminster's voice in the constituency, it has to be their constituents' voice in Westminster instead. They forget that word representation, and I put Dudley people first."