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Rishi Sunak has claimed the result of the next general election is not a “foregone conclusion”, as he seeks to rally disillusioned Conservatives reeling from punishing local elections last week.
Speaking during a visit to a north London community centre on Monday, the UK prime minister insisted he was “absolutely determined to fight incredibly hard for what I believe and for the future country that I want to build”.
He added: “The result of the next general election isn’t a foregone conclusion and indeed actually is closer than . . . many people are saying.”
Over the weekend, Sunak told The Times that the local elections — in which the Tories lost nearly 500 council seats and a key West Midlands mayoralty — “suggest we are heading for a hung parliament with Labour as the largest party”.
He warned that a split vote would lead to Labour being “propped up in Downing Street by the SNP, Liberal Democrats and the Greens”, which would be a “disaster for Britain”.
The PM’s comments are part of a bid to raise public concerns over the possibility of a volatile progressive coalition led by Labour.
A similar tactic was used successfully by the Conservative party in the run-up to the 2015 general election when Ed Miliband was Labour leader.
Sunak is planning for an autumn general election, according to party insiders, with a campaign buoyed by more positive economic data expected in the coming months.
“I’m determined more than ever to demonstrate to the country that we are making progress on the areas that matter to them and we are going to deliver for them,” he said on Monday.
Sunak pointed to cuts to national insurance that have already been announced, falling inflation and policies to reform the welfare system.
However, some within the party were unconvinced that his latest pitch to the electorate would pay off. One Tory MP described it as “wishful thinking”. Another said there was “an almost irrefutable sense of ‘time for a change’”, which no rhetorical sleight of hand will be able to reverse.
One former minister in Sunak’s government said he did not think a hung parliament was likely, arguing the government should instead present a vision and narrative for the coming years “that hangs our policies together”.
Sunak and his cabinet ministers this weekend cited a general election voting projection by Sky News based on the recent local election results, which suggested Labour would be unable to secure enough votes to form a majority.
Polling expert John Curtice criticised Sky’s methodology, however, and cautioned against extrapolating national poll outcomes from local results.
“It’s quite long been the case, certainly since the late 1980s, that the way that people vote in local elections doesn’t necessarily exactly mirror the way that they would vote in a general election,” he told the BBC, noting that the Lib Dems, Greens and independents always tended to fare better.
Pat McFadden, Labour’s campaign chief, downplayed the possibility of Labour forming a coalition with its opposition parties.
“Our aim is to win a majority, to govern, to meet the mood for change, and we’re not planning any alliances or pacts with anyone,” he told Sky on Sunday.
