‘What’s the weather like up there?’ Britain’s tallest Tory opens up about bullying, getting discounts on custom-made clothes and the jokes he hears daily

He would quite like to be a future Prime Minister, but if that doesn’t work out perhaps James McAlpine could pivot and become a meteorologist?

It’s quite astonishing how many people ask the 22-year-old student about the weather conditions. It even happens during our interview.

A complete stranger walks past and says ‘what’s the weather like up there?’

Apparently, it can happen 20 times a day, but James – who is north of 7ft tall – is a well brought-up lad and unfailingly polite

Only time will tell whether James McAlpine stands head and shoulders (and head and shoulders again) above the political opposition, but last week his extraordinary height made him the unexpected star of the Conservative Party conference.

A photograph of this Young Conservative meeting his heroine, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, went viral. What an image!

James – all 7’2′ of him – was pictured stooping to speak to Badenoch, who stands at 5’4′.

She had just finished delivering her leader’s speech and sought him out, thanking him for being ‘our tallest member’, sparking headlines about him being the tallest Tory in town.

Frankly, Badenoch looked like a tiny little Lilluputian in his shadow, but he says he looks up to her – metaphorically anyway.

‘I think she’s fantastic. She’s confident. She’s got a good plan,’ he enthuses. ‘There was so much infighting before she came along, but she’s managed to unite everyone.’

And catapult James into the spotlight, of course.

The first thing I want to know is how posh he actually is because the information already out there about him suggests he’s an off-the-scale Hooray Henry, as well as off-the-scale tall.

It turns out that on TikTok James is already something of a colossus, more famous in some circles than Badenoch herself.

Spotting him, head in the clouds, at high society events like Ascot, Henley and Cheltenham has become something of a sport in itself, with TikTokers clamouring to film him for their content – yes, hilariously, they all need to stand back to fit his never-ending frame in their viewfinder

Although he’s at Oxford Brookes University now, studying business – but with an eye very much on that political career – TikTok also tells me that James grew up on a country estate in Scotland.

In almost every social media picture he appears to be wearing tweed, or a top hat, looking, implausibly enough, like the lovechild of politician Jacob Rees-Mogg and the racing commentator John McCririck.

In his single days – before he met his current girlfriend Tilly, 18, a fellow student, in June – he would say that he wanted to find a girl ‘who likes to wear a Schoffel’, which sends its own message. It’s an outdoorsy clothing brand so posh that you’re unlikely to have heard of if you don’t shoot, ride, or hang out in places where you’ll meet Zara Phillips.

 The first surprise, then, is discovering that he’s not actually a Toff at all.

‘I’d say I’m middle class,’ he says, when put on the spot to define it. It’s complicated though.

Although ‘home’ was the epic 30,000 acre Dalmeny Estate – the country pile of the Earl and Countess of Rosebury, situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth – James actually lived in the grounds.

His late father Duncan, he tells me, was head gardener there until he died in 2021, of pancreatic cancer.

‘We lived in a cottage on the estate,’ he says.

Since he’s also just volunteered the information that his father was 6’9′ and his mother Vanessa is ‘about 6’5′, although she reckons she’s shrunk a bit recently’, one hopes that it was a cottage with unusually high ceilings?

‘High enough,’ he says. ‘Although ceilings and door frames are an occupational hazard. When you are my height, you learn to bend down.’

Is he an actual giant? He doesn’t mind the term, and actually seems quite proud to use it, but in scientific terms ‘giant’ refers to someone with gigantism, a rare condition caused by excess growth hormone. James says he doesn’t have this.

His extreme height is, he explains, ‘a simple matter of genetics’.

James tells me that no, he didn’t realise he was particularly unusual to begin with, although the fact the labels in his clothes said ‘aged 12’ when he was only eight or nine, would have been a giveaway.

Yes, he is the tallest person he knows, ‘although I do belong to the Tall Person’s Society, so I have met some people of similar heights through that’.

What does his girlfriend Tilly, 18, herself an above average 5’8′, think of dating someone so lofty?

‘She likes the fact she can wear heels with me,’ he says, adding: ‘She loves the fact I’m so tall.’ Do women generally? ‘Oh yes.’

Does he have a special bed? ‘No, just a big one’.

How can he fit in a car? Can he fold those legs up? ‘I don’t have one at the minute but I’d quite like a Range Rover. Good leg room. Aeroplanes are a nightmare. I tend not to fly much.’

Where DOES he get his clothes for his 40ins inside leg measurement? Not to mention shoes for his size 15 feet.

For day to day stuff he favours specialist online retailers, but for occasion wear, one of his favourite jackets is a custom made one from Hackett. He also has ‘a great suit from Butch Taylors, and I also go to Oliver Brown’.

The off-the-rail suits at these places run to thousands of pounds – and James needs bespoke, so how on earth does a student, the son of a gardener, afford that?

Isn’t it also off-the-scale expensive, being him?

‘Not at all. They give me a discount if I mention them on my social media’.

While James seems quite shy, he seems to have worked out that if people are going to stare and point, he might as well embrace the interest, rather than run from it, hence his TikTok fame.

He says he is proud to fly the flag for British brands, where possible, and is traditional in every sense.

‘I stand for manners, pride in my country, good British values.’

He speaks – in a plummy voice; no hint of a Scottish burr – like no 22 year old I have ever met, but the more he talks about his childhood, the more it seems that he’s stepped out of the pages of a fairytale book and not just because he is giant sized.

‘My playground was the Scottish countryside, acres upon acres of land, fields, woods. It was brilliant fun,’ he says, recalling striding out with his dad.

There were a handful of other people living on the estate, but no-one really his own age.

‘The Duke and Countess of Rosebery had grandchildren who would come and stay in the summer, sometimes, so I’d see them, but mostly it was just me and my parents. It was quite difficult because my school friends lived in the nearest town and we were quite remote. It could be lonely, yes.’

His mum had worked in HR but gave up work when James was born. An only child, aged eight he finally got a playmate – a black Labrador puppy called Tully. ‘And Tully was my best friend. More than a friend really. She was like my sibling.’ When Tully had to be put down last year, it broke his heart.

He’d already been through the loss of his father and then – because the cottage came with the job – his home.

James and his mother now live in Edinburgh.

He’s supremely stiff-upper-lip, not a gushy or emotional sort, but he does reference a difficult chapter in his childhood which seems to explain a lot.

After primary school, he went to a state secondary school – but his extreme height made him a target for bullies.

‘It was name-calling, then, you know, the odd sort of kick, the odd sort of punch. I’d get pencils stabbed in me. It was a horrible time for me, really. Brutal. And the school didn’t do anything about it.’

His parents did. After a year and a half they found the funds to send him to private school, Clifton Hall School.

He thinks it’s unseemly to talk about family money (‘I’d rather not’) but it was a good move.

‘I fitted in much better there, and the opportunities were better, too.’

During the bullying he recalls praying that he would stop shooting heavenward.

‘I remember thinking ‘I really want to stop growing now’, but then I kept going, going, going. Thank goodness now I’ve stopped,’ he says. In fact, he only stopped growing last year.

That chapter was also the making of him. ‘It made me the person I am. It toughened me up.’

Nowadays, he says most people are harmless in their curiosity, and desire to engage. Not everyone though.

‘There are some – men especially – who have a known thing called Small Man Syndrome,’ he admits.

‘They want to take other men down so they can be on their height level. But it doesn’t work with me. I’m not an aggressive person. When that happens, I try to walk away from it, mostly.’

No wonder Tilly calls him her ‘gentle giant’.

Is he tough enough for politics, though? It was the plight of the farmers that encouraged him into activism.

News that the Labour Government was planning to impose inheritance tax on family farms sent him out with the placards.

When he started at Oxford Brookes University last year, with an eye on a career in insurance, he also joined the Conversative Party, ‘because it stands for what I stand for – good British values’.

Yes he would like to stand for election, at some point, and he seems quite tickled about the idea of one day being the tallest British Prime Minister on record.

So who are his political giants? ‘Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, David Cameron, Boris Johnson. And now Kemi, of course.’

I do wonder what the bullies who made his life hell will make of this spotlight on him. Has he seen them since? Have they sought him out?

‘No, but I’m an easy person to find. There’s no secrets about where I am. You can’t exactly miss me.’