Rishi Sunak is said to be looking at calling a general election in October, earlier than previously expected, amid mounting concern over upheaval if Donald Trump wins the US election.
The US will go to the polls on November 5. A UK election date of November 14 had previously been floated, but this is thought to have been ruled out.
An election earlier than November would disrupt conference season, which is typically a major fundraising event for political parties.
But a Tory source told the Sun: "Cash is not a problem for us." Donations have been flooding into the Conservative Party in recent months, with a total of £16.5 million being donated in the last four months.
Rishi Sunak is said to be looking at calling a general election in October
PA
Another source said: "All the mood music is pointing to October now. There’s a feeling November could be mad enough.”
The Conservative Party is battling devastating polling, with many surveys suggesting it should be prepared for Labour to win a landslide victory.
Polling conducted by YouGov last month 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 survey is the most extensive polling to be carried out since the last general election took place.
It also suggested 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.
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The poll, published in the Telegraph, also predicts that the SNP will lose almost half of its seats to Labour, keeping just 25.
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.
The Conservative Party is battling devastating polling
PA
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.
