The Conservatives will likely “take a pasting” at the general election, former Tory chancellor Philip Hammond conceded on Thursday.
Recent polls have suggested Labour are on course for a landslide victory at the vote, expected in the Autumn.
But Lord Hammond, who led the Treasury between 2016 and 2019, warned that tough times were ahead and any politician “who says we do not need to cut anything is not being honest”.
“I think the formidable problem is for our democratic politics because I can easily envisage, and the polls are certainly suggesting, that the Conservative party will take a pasting at the next election,” he told BBC Radio 4.
“But do I think that the Labour party has a magic bullet that will solve all the problems? Not at all. And they too will have to deal with this excruciating problem of ever rising demand for ordinary public spending and on top of it, the need to decarbonise and rearm the country in the face of big existential threats.”
Labour could win 403 seats nationwide, the latest YouGov poll has suggested.
The Conservatives would take just 155 seats according to the survey, down from the 169 in the polling company’s January projection, and fewer than half the number the party won under Boris Johnson in 2019.
It suggests that the electoral situation is getting worse, rather than better, for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as the country draws closer to the election.
It could mean Tory MPs are almost “wiped out” in capital.
The More in Common research group analysed recent large scale surveys using the MRP polling method which were carried out by YouGov, Survation and Find Out Now.
It found that all three showed Labour winning in 64 London constituencies, out of 75 seats.
It comes amid warning that confusion about new voter ID laws could prove decisive for senior Conservatives including Mr Sunak and his predecessor Liz Truss at the next election.
A mammoth poll conducted on behalf of campaign group Best for Britain found 16 per cent of people did not know that they would need photo ID to vote, meaning around five million voters could be turned away from polling stations.
The survey of 15,000 people suggested the Conservatives were on course for their worst ever defeat, projecting the party would win just 98 seats on the basis of current polling.
High-profile figures including the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and Ms Truss saw their majorities slashed to less than 5 per cent in the projections, with Best for Britain claiming a lack of awareness about voter ID requirements could prove "decisive" for those MPs.
The campaign group said around 1.85 million people in marginal seats did not know about voter ID rules, including around 9,800 people in the PM’s North Yorkshire constituency and a similar number in Ms Truss's South West Norfolk seat.
Naomi Smith, chief executive of Best for Britain, said: "While polls suggest it won't be enough to change the result of the next general election, the introduction of unnecessary photo ID could be the difference between victory and defeat for high profile Conservatives in marginal constituencies."
