Tory campaign chief Isaac Levido has accused unnamed Tory donors behind a new mega opinion poll which forecast a 1997-style wipeout for the Conservatives of "throwing in the towel".
Conservative MPs have been alarmed by a YouGov mega-survey, the most detailed in five years, which forecast that Conservatives will retain just 169 seats as Labour sweeps to power with 385 MPs, giving Sir Keir Starmer a 120-seat majority.
Every Red Wall seat won from Labour by Boris Johnson in 2019 would be lost, and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is forecast to be one of 11 Cabinet ministers to lose their seats.
The poll of 14,000 voters - far larger than normal - was commissioned by a group of Conservative donors called the Conservative Britain Alliance and carried out by YouGov, working with Lord Frost.
Isaac Levido
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However, Levido hit back at the poll's backers at a meeting of backbench Tory MPs in Parliament tonight, saying: "You know your constituencies better than me, better than any media commentators and certainly better than any public pollster.
"But the people who organised this poll and analysed and timed the release of it seem to be intent on undermining this government and our party, and therefore the re-election prospects of every single one of you in this room.
"They seem to be throwing in the towel and are more interested in what happens after the election rather than fighting it - making the pathway narrower and steeper."
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Rishi Sunak
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Levido - who took over the Tory re-election campaign full-time this week - added: "It’s time to get serious - I am fighting to win this election, and I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe it was possible.
"We all need to be fighting to win this election. People do not want [Keir] Starmer.
"They are looking for reasons to vote for us. We must not give them any more reasons not to."
A Labour spokesman was approached for comment.