Conservatives face 1997-style electoral wipeout, major poll suggests

The Conservatives are facing a 1997-style electoral wipeout that would hand Labour a 120-seat majority, a major opinion poll suggests.

A YouGov survey of 14,000 people indicates that Rishi Sunak’s Tories could hold on to as few as 169 seats as Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour enters Downing Street with 385.

The polling, reported by the Telegraph, indicated that every so-called “red wall” seat won by Boris Johnson in 2019 could be lost at the general election this year.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt could lose his seat in the carnage (Maja Smiejkowska/PA)

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt could be one of 11 Cabinet ministers to lose their seats in what would be the biggest collapse in support for a governing party since 1906, according to the newspaper.

Support for Reform UK would be decisive in 96 Tory losses despite the Nigel Farage-linked party not picking up a single seat, the polling suggests, while the SNP would also suffer.

The research, using the multi-level regression and post-stratification method, was commissioned by a group of Tory donors working with former Brexit negotiator Lord David Frost

Conservative anxieties about their electoral prospects under Mr Sunak are likely to reach new heights.

Simon Clarke, who was a Cabinet minister under Liz Truss, said the result would be a “disaster”.

“The time for half measures is over,” he wrote on social media. “We either deliver on small boats or we will be destroyed.”

Among the other top Tories said to be on course to lose their seats are Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt and Attorney General Victoria Prentis.

The PA news agency is yet to see the research.