Grant Shapps drops election bombshell - it is 'unlikely' Tories will win

Grant Shapps has conceded it is unlikely the Tories will win the General Election as a survey showed the party being wiped out next month.

The Defence Secretary's comments came after a poll over the weekend showed Keir Starmer could win 456 seats in a landslide bigger than Tony Blair's 1997 victory.

It also found Rishi Sunak could win just 72 seats with Cabinet Ministers, including Mr Shapps and the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, losing their seats.

Mr Shapps told Times Radio: "It's possible to win the election. Do I accept it's not the most likely outcome? Yes, I accept that. I'm a realist."

He added: "But I also think that when people start to narrow down on this focus, and in particular, I've noticed this with talking to people on the doorstep where they have been perhaps toying voting in another direction and then realising that just gives Starmer more power."

Grant Shapps made the admission as a poll showed the Tories being wiped out

Pressed on whether he was saying a Tory victory is unlikely - but possible - he said: "Look I think that's the realistic position isn't it? I live in the real world. So you know, let's not try and pretend black is white.

Mr Shapps also said he stands by the comments he made last week that Labour could secure a "supermajority". He said: "We're still fighting for absolutely every single vote, which is absolutely the right thing to do and warning of the dangers of Labour.

"But what I said last week stands, a blank cheque, a supermajority is a dangerous thing, particularly when we already know they have these plans to change the council tax bands."

The Cabinet Minister was also grilled on Sky News over how it feels for his "political dreams to be over" as the same poll also showed him losing his seat. The Defence Secretary admitted his Welwyn Hatfield constituency was on a "knife-edge" - but that he was fighting for every vote.