IF whoever designed the Government’s voter registration website had consulted the people of North Yorkshire, he would have known that there is great interest in the EU referendum.

Spectator has kept a watchful eye on the question and answer sessions that the new MP from Richmond held in four towns in his constituency last week – the Rishi roadshow rolled in to Northallerton, Stokesley, Richmond and Leyburn, and in each case the venues were packed.

The roadshow began on a gloriously sunny bank holiday evening with more than 100 people filling Northallerton Town Hall, and it concluded at an equally sunny Tennants auction rooms in Leyburn last Thursday where more than 200 turned out – in total, about 550 people took part.

The number under 20 years of age probably struggled to make double figures, but nevertheless it was an impressive turnout.

Mr Sunak is a Brexiteer which, he admitted, was not the stance of his illustrious predecessor, William Hague, but then he also admitted that Mr Hague’s shoes were hard to fill – one plain spoken constituent, he said, had recently told him that he had “twice the hair and half the brains” of Mr Hague.

However, he marshalled his arguments and statistics well, and responded to a wide range of questioning – farming was just as high in people’s minds as immigration.

Three of the evenings finished with a show of hands. In Northallerton, where the questioning had seemed extremely hostile to Mr Sunak’s position, a surprising 70 per cent said they were voting to leave and ten per cent were staying in. Richmond was a little more pro the EU, with 60 per cent voting out and about 30 per cent in the remain camp. Leyburn, though, was overwhelmingly anti: 80 per cent wanted out.

Of course, this is utterly unscientific and completely contrary to the 1975 referendum result when North Yorkshire, with 76.3 per cent voting yes, was the most pro-EEC county in all Britain.