South-west England has become a three-way political battleground 

When you are a beleaguered leader struggling through a long campaign, an unfortunate metaphor lurks around every corner. So it proved for Rishi Sunak on a recent visit to a farm near Barnstaple, a town in the constituency of North Devon. Mr Sunak gamely entered a sheep pen; the sheep all turned and fled. “Come on,” the prime minister pleaded, pointing to a bucket of feed. “They don’t want to play ball,” observed the farmer.