UK Tories face election wipeout – polls

The Conservative Party is heading for its worst-ever general election result, pollsters suggest

The UK Conservative Party is on course for a historic defeat in July’s general election, ending their 14-year run in government, according to three major polls released on Wednesday.

A poll by Savanta and Electoral Calculus for the Telegraph forecasts the Tories getting just 53 seats out of 650 in parliament. Not only would this mark an all-time low for the party, but the poll predicted the current Tory leader and Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, could lose his seat in Richmond and Northallerton, an unprecedented blow for a serving leader.

A More in Common survey for the News Agents podcast showed the Tories heading towards 155 seats. Despite being the most optimistic for the Conservatives of the three polls, it would still mean less than half the current 344, and even fewer seats than they had in 1997, when the Conservative party lost leadership to Labour.

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Meanwhile, YouGov has predicted the Tories will slip down to 108 seats. All three polls projected the Conservative Party would see a worse outcome than their disastrous 1906 result, which brought a landslide Liberal victory.

The surveys all forecast that the Liberal Democrats will enjoy their best results in years. YouGov predicts the Lib Dems will get 67 seats, more than they have ever had. More in Common put them at 49 seats, and Savanta at 50.

All three surveys suggested Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer is on track to become the next prime minister, and all three predicted his party winning more than 400 seats – surpassing the party’s resounding win of 1997.