Panicked Conservative MPs were left reeling last night as newly published polling put the party on course for the worst general election result in over 100 years.
Polling conducted by YouGov shows the party is heading for a 1997-style defeat, with every single Red Wall seat won from Labour by Boris Johnson in 2019 being lost.
The data, published after speaking to 14,000 people, forecasts that the Tories will retain just 169 seats.
Meanwhile, Labour would win 385 seats – handing the party a 120 seat majority.
The Conservative Party appears to be on the brink of disaster as new polling shows it is heading for a devastating wipeout at the next election
PA
The survey is the most extensive polling to be carried out since the last general election took place.
Just hours after the results were published, the party already appeared to be spiralling into meltdown, with alarm and dismay spreading through Tory ranks.Tory peer Zac Goldsmith took a swipe at the party for removing former PM Boris Johnson, saying: "Thank God for those clever-clog ‘Tory grandees’ who got rid of Boris. Dodged a bullet there didn’t they! Genius".
While former minister Simon Clarke demanded the party take action on migration in order to avoid being "destroyed" at the next election.
He said: "This result would represent a disaster for [the Conservatives] and our country. The time for half measures is over. We either deliver on small boats or we will be destroyed."
The devastating polling also suggests that as many as eleven Cabinet ministers could lose their seats - including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.
The party would win 196 fewer seats than in 2019, which is greater than the 178 lost by Sir John Major in 1997.
If the 11.5 per cent swing to Labour, predicted by the poll, comes to fruition, it would mark the biggest collapse in support for a governing party since 1906.
Such a swing is likely to mean Starmer will remain in power for at least a decade, as no party with such a significant majority has ever lost the subsequent election.
The poll, published in the Telegraph, also predicts that the SNP will lose almost half of its seats to Labour, keeping just 25.
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Conservative peer Lord Frost described the polling as "stunningly awful", warning that the party could be facing an "extinction event".
He noted that the result would be made worse as a result of tactical voting - and any decision by Nigel Farage to return to frontline politics.
Writing in the Telegraph, the former Brexit negotiator argued that the only way to avoid such a defeat is to be "as tough as it takes on immigration, reverse the debilitating increases in tax, end the renewables tax on energy costs – and much more”.
The poll spoke to 14,000 people over the course of the New Year.
