Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton to campaign in Adelaide as Sturt in Labor’s grasp

Both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton are expected in Adelaide imminently as both sides agree on the likely outcome of one of SA’s battleground seats.

Both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton are expected to campaign in Adelaide on Thursday as the eastern suburbs seat of Sturt is a growing chance of being snared by Labor for the first time in more than 50 years.

With the election spotlight on Adelaide in the campaign’s second-last day, both leaders are understood to be making whistlestop visits.

Mr Albanese is expected in the knife-edge seats of Boothby and Sturt – the latter has been a Liberal stronghold since 1972 and in Labor hands for only four years since formation in 1949.

Both senior Labor and Liberal sources say Sturt, which was held by Liberal Christopher Pyne for more than 25 years, is increasingly likely to fall to Labor.

Liberal James Stevens holds Sturt with a razor-thin margin of 0.5 per cent and is considered vulnerable with Greens and independent candidate preferences expected to flow strongly to Labor.

Mr Albanese last June branded Labor Sturt candidate Claire Clutterham “certainly future ministerial material”.

Asked at the time about the prospect of Greens preferences handing Ms Clutterham victory when he had condemned the minor party for anti-Semitism, Mr Albanese said he was campaigning for people to hand their first-preference vote to Labor to back majority government.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits Sturt on April 14, at Nonnas Cucina, a local non-for-profit, which provides home cooked Italian style meals to the elderly and people with disabilities. He is joined by Sturt candidate Claire Clutterham. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

Labor also is also gaining confidence of retaining the southwestern Adelaide seat of Boothby, where first-term MP Louise Miller-Frost is trying to fend off a spirited challenge from previous Liberal incumbent Nicolle Flint.

Labor sources said they rated Ms Flint as a strong, hardworking candidate and expected her to whittle Ms Miller-Frost’s margin.

But a succession of favourable national opinion polls has buoyed South Australian Labor strategists and concerned their Liberal counterparts.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton visits the suburb of Glen Osmond in Adelaide on April 7 with Boothby Liberal candidate Nicolle Flint (left). Picture Thomas Lisson / NewsWire

Another major factor is the ongoing popularity of Premier Peter Malinauskas, who has been used as a Labor campaign spearhead ahead of Mr Albanese.

Liberals also are worried about brand damage from the historic depths being plumbed by the party at a state parliamentary level.

Mr Pyne, who was renowned as an indefatigable on-ground campaigner in Sturt, has appeared with his successor, Mr Stevens, in an effort to boost his support.

The former defence minister on Saturday posted to Instagram a picture of the duo, declaring Mr Stevens had “the intelligence, capability and drive to make a real difference for SA and the people of Sturt in Canberra”.

Labor’s Norm Foster held Sturt from 1969-72, when he was defeated by future Fraser government minister Ian Wilson, who was deposed by Mr Pyne in 1993.

The only other time Labor has held the eastern suburbs seat, which stretches from Hope Valley in the north to Leawood Gardens in the south, was under Norman Makin in 1954-55.

Originally published as Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton to campaign in Adelaide as Sturt in Labor’s grasp