‘Extremely difficult’ for Tories to win next election, says Sir John Curtice

‘If I were providing advice to the prime minister, I would say the one thing you have to do is to play by the rules,’ said Curtice. Photograph: Martin Hunter/The Guardian

It will be “extremely difficult” for the Conservatives to win the next general election after presiding over a fiscal crisis, although a change of prime minister makes predictions more complex, the leading pollster Sir John Curtice has said.

It is possible the party could succumb to a 1997-style landslide defeat, or even worse, Curtice, a professor of politics at Strathclyde University and viewed as the UK’s foremost polling expert, said at a briefing.