“Please have me to stay.”

So begins one of the more upfront pitches from a British politician in recent years as former Tory MP Rory Stewart pleads for a place to sleep in a new video just uploaded to Twitter.

He continues: “It’s a weird request…”

We’ll stop you there Rory. It is indeed, and the replies to the video are fantastic.

But in fairness to Stewart, who is standing as an Independent candidate for London Mayor, it’s coming from a good place.

We’ll let him finish.

“It’s a weird request but the way that Mayors get to know their cities is by literally walking through every one of the 32 boroughs, being in other people’s shoes, seeing through their eyes, staying in their houses.”

And if that wasn’t a good enough reason, he adds this sweetener: “And I promise to bring a sleeping bag and a box of chocolates!”

The stunt is in keeping with Stewart’s previous approach to politics – during his failed Tory leadership bid last year he walked around the UK asking people to ”talk or challenge me”, accidentally becoming a bit of a sweetheart in the process. 

And as well as the ribbing from his latest video, there are some people obviously endeared with the idea – sort of.