Rishi Sunak insisted he has not accepted defeat in the election after a senior cabinet minister appeared to concede the Conservatives have lost.
A defiant prime minister said he had “absolutely not” given up on winning just a day after launching the Tory manifesto.
His denial followed comments by the defence secretary Grant Shapps, who urged voters not to give Labour a “supermajority”.
It came just hours before Mr Sunak was set to face off with Keir Starmer in another televised election showdown, on the eve of Labour’s manifesto launch.
Click here for our live coverage of the general election campaign.
On another dreadful day for the Tories:
- Official figures showed the economy flatlined in April, undermining the party’s key message that the country has “turned a corner”.
- Labour said the Tories had "completely blown up" the PM’s flagship national service plans after Mr Shapps said they would involve just 25 days in the military.
- Mr Sunak was ridiculed for claiming his family had had to go without Sky TV when he was a child.
- He also came under fire for saying the D-Day commemorations last week “ran over”.
- Polling experts warned him it was now or never to change the fortunes of his moribund campaign, with the first postal votes set to be cast within days.
In an extraordinary moment, Mr Shapps appealed to voters that after the election “that there’s a proper system of accountability... you don’t want to have somebody receive a supermajority.”
His apparent admission came after a torrid week in which Mr Sunak had to deny he would quit before election day after snubbing part of the event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
New official figures also showed no growth in the economy in April, according to the Office for National Statistics, in a blow to his hopes of recovery.
Pollsters have also warned time is running out, with the first ballots set to be cast by post by the start of next week.
To add to his woes it emerged a Tory MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns has used a picture of the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on her election leaflets, despite his party standing against her.
And former Tory minister Nadine Dorries said it was "over" for the Conservatives and told Times Radio she was not "even sure why candidates are bothering to go out and deliver leaflets".
Asked about Mr Shapps’s comments, the prime minister said he had "absolutely not" lost hope of winning the election.
He warned against giving Sir Keir Starmer a "blank cheque" if he won power, but stressed that he was still hopeful of victory.
Asked whether the shift in messaging signalled the Tories conceding defeat, Mr Sunak said: “No absolutely not. What you saw yesterday is we’ve put a manifesto forward which has got a very clear set of tax cuts for the country, tax cuts at every stage of your life...And I’m really energised to now have a chance to put a very clear plan to the country and talk about all the things I want to do."
Sir Keir insisted Labour was not complacent about victory but urged voters to give him the mandate to deliver change.
He said: "We know that we have to earn every vote.
"Not a single vote has been cast and I know that every day we have to make a positive case for change."
The Conservatives have also released Facebook adverts suggesting the party could come third behind the Liberal Democrats.
One post being promoted by the Conservatives has a graph depicting Labour winning 490 seats, the Lib Dems winning 61 and the Tories holding just 57.
Mr Sunak and Sir Keir are preparing for a Sky News event in Grimsby where they will face questions from journalist Beth Rigby and the studio audience.
On the economy, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said: "Rishi Sunak claims we have turned a corner, but the economy has stalled and there is no growth."
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Sarah Olney said: "The Conservatives have utterly failed to deliver the growth they repeatedly promised, instead presiding over stagnation and economic misery for hardworking families across the country."
But Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the figures showed the economy "grew by 0.7% in the three months to April".
"There is more to do, but the economy is turning a corner and inflation is back down to normal," he said.
