A former Tory cabinet minister has suggested Jeremy Hunt's tax rises could be "the final nail" in the party's election chances as he and Rishi Sunak face a growing rebellion.
Esther McVey launched a scathing attack on the plans, saying she could not support the decision to raise taxes for "squeezed" Brits.
It is likely that voters face many more months of Tory squabbling in the fallout from the bombshell announcement, which have been heavily criticised with economists warning Brits face years of misery.
She rallied against HS2, saying the £150billion project - which Mr Hunt yesterday said would go ahead - should have been scrapped first.
Speaking on GB News, Ms McVey fumed: "What you don't need is less of your earnings coming into your pocket."
And she continued: "I think - as various people have written - was this the end of the Tory party and is this going to be the nail in the coffin for the next General Election?"
Ms McVey, who served as Work and Pensions Secretary under Theresa May, added: "I can't be supporting these rises, I said look at other places that you could have saved the money and got more value for the British people."
It comes amid warning that Brits "just got a lot poorer", with those on middle-incomes "set for a shock" after Mr Hunt's Autumn Statement.
The stark warning from the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank came after the Chancellor was accused of a raid on millions of workers with stealth tax hikes.
He stressed that he would be "most surprised" if the tax burden gets down long-term pre-Covid average at "any time in the coming decades".
The Chancellor announced £25billion of tax rises in his financial plan yesterday, but this has already left many members of his party queasy.
Tory grandee Lord Frost accused the government of "avoiding hard choices".
He warned that by putting up taxes and not bringing in immediate spending restraints "then a price has to be paid in the end".
He wrote: "Taxes on business wreck investment and growth. Taxes on the (not very) rich destroy incentives.
Britain’s hard-won reputation for being a low tax country is permanently lost. And we all have less of our own money and are less free."
Meanwhile former cabinet member Jacob Rees-Mogg, who quit when Rishi Sunak took office, rallied against tax increases.
He said: "I think we need to look at the efficiency of government to make sure money is well spent before reaching for the easy option of putting up taxes.
"What we actually need to be doing is having a strategy for growth and looking to lower taxes."
But Mr Hunt struck back, telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme that "sound money matters more than low taxes".
"What I would say to my Conservative colleagues, is there is nothing Conservative about spending money that you haven't got," he told Sky News.
"There is nothing Conservative about not tackling inflation, there is nothing Conservative about ducking difficult decisions that put the economy on track.
"And we've done all of those things and that is why this is a very Conservative package to make sure we sort out the economy."
And writing in the i, veteran backbencher Charles Walker questioned the decision to bring back the pension triple lock when young people are struggling.
He wrote: "The measure that had me, a backbencher, “sucking on lemons”, was the retention of the pension triple lock.
"Featherbedding the retired at the expense of the young, who made such a sacrifice to keep them safe during the two years of Covid lockdowns."
He claimed he raised his concerns in the Commons Tea Room, but was given the "weary" response: “But Charles, pensioners are the only people left who vote for us.”
Meanwhile the PM and Chancellor face a possible rebellion over fuel duty if a hike goes ahead in next year's budget.
A "substantial number" of Tory MPs are opposed to a hike in fuel duty, Mr Hunt has been warned.
No 10 insisted no decision has been made on whether to go ahead.
In a letter to the Chancellor, Tory backbencher Jonathan Gullis warned that if he tried to go ahead with the rise it would be opposed by a "substantial number" of Conservative MPs.
But on Friday the Chancellor said the Government has not made a decision to hike fuel duty. "Let me be clear, that is not Government policy, we'll make a decision on that at the next Budget in the spring. "That was just an assumption the OBR made".
It emerged after the Autumn Statement that the price at the pump could increase by 12p a litre due to the rate of inflation.
In its latest economic forecasts, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) noted that the rise - which is pencilled in for next March - would bring in a record cash increase of £5.7 billion if it goes ahead.
