A Conservative cabinet minister appeared to acknowledge the dire state of the Tory general election campaign on Wednesday, as he warned the electorate of the risks of handing Labour a thumping super-majority.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps told Times Radio the sort of overwhelming Labour majority many current polls indicate could be a “dangerous place to put this country.”
He cautioned against voters giving the party “unchecked power”, but insisted he Tories are “fighting for every single seat” – despite a rocky start to their election campaign.
Shapps said: “I think it’s perfectly legitimate to say the country doesn’t function well when you get majorities the size of Blair’s or even bigger.
“And we would say, there are a lot of very good, hardworking MPs who can hold the government of the day to account. And we’d say those are Conservative MPs.”
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Tory social media adverts have also begun warning voters to not cast their ballots for the Liberal Democrats or Reform UK, so as not to give Labour a “massive majority”.
One widely circulated campaign ad even implied the Conservatives risked coming in third place behind the Lib Dems if too many people voted for Reform.
Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997 saw Labour win 418 seats – giving them a parliamentary majority of 179.
But many opinion polls during this year’s election campaign and beforehand have suggested that Labour could score a win of an even greater magnitude.
YouGov’s first MRP survey of the 2024 campaign said current polling pointed to 422 seats for Labour, with the Conservatives taking a mere 140 – a worse result for the Tories than their 1997 annihilation.
Labour figures have previously warned repeatedly against complacency, noting no votes have been cast – though postal voting begins this week – and polls only capture sentiment at a particular moment in time rather than how people will necessarily vote at the ballot box.
Read more of our 2024 general election coverage here.
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