Voters who backed the Tories at the last election are at risk of staying at home next time as they have "buyer’s remorse", an ex-minister has admitted.
Ed Vaizey said the party’s MPs are worried about losing their seats as people who supported them before may “sit on their hands”.
The former culture minister, who now has a seat in the Lords, believes it is mostly likely the Conservatives will lose the next election.
Speaking on LBC, Lord Vaizey said: “The Red Wall was delivered for a number of reasons, it was delivered partly because of Boris Johnson ’s magnetic appeal. He got to the parts that other Conservatives cannot reach.
“A lot of Tory MPs… are worried about people who decided to vote Tory who are now going to sit on their hands.
“They don’t want to go back to Labour yet, the Corbyn effect may still be happening. They have got buyer’s remorse in voting Tory, that is their real problem.”
The Tory peer, who represented Wantage as an MP for 14 years before standing down in 2019, suggested the result of the next election was not yet a foregone conclusion.
“I have always thought Keir Starmer has not sealed the deal in the way that Tony Blair had sealed the deal in the mid 1990s. So I think there is everything to play for,” he said.
“But I think you had to put your mortgage on a result, it would be Tories losing at the moment.”
It comes as a Tory former Cabinet minister warned that scores of the party’s MPs face losing their seats at the next election.
They told the Mirror: "People are not happy. MPs are asking what do we stand for? No one knows any more.
"The problem is we’ve got a managerial government. We’ve got two chancellors [with Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak ].
“He (the Prime Minister) knows he’s only got two years and is not even looking beyond that. Yet despite being managerial he might not solve the great managerial issue - the small boats."
The MP predicted revolts over wind farms and housing will be a warm-up act to bigger revolts in future - possibly even over a Budget - as splits over high taxes are reopened.
"It wouldn't happen in Spring but it could blow up by the Autumn Statement next year," they predicted.
They added: "I have a lot of people on the doorstep saying we just can’t vote for you any more. They’re not switching to Labour or the Lib Dems, they just can’t back us.
"It'll either be like 1992 or 1997. Either way, the party’s going to be smaller. Then we will have to work out what we stand for. That question won’t be resolved until after the next election."
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