Rishi Sunak Has Admitted Labour Are On Course To Win The General Election

Labour are on course to win the general election, Rishi Sunak has admitted.

In extraordinary remarks, the prime minister said they will be “the largest party” after the country goes to the polls.

However, he insisted an analysis of last week’s local elections, in which the Tories lost nearly 500 seats, showed Keir Starmer will not win a majority and will need to be “propped up by the SNP, Liberal Democrats and Greens”.

That was a reference to a projection by the polling expert Michael Thrasher, who said the local elections suggest Labour’s lead over the Conservatives is just seven points, well short of what opinion polls have been saying for months.

If that was repeated at the general election, it would leave Starmer short of an overall majority, Thrasher said.

Speaking to The Times, Sunak said: “These results suggest we are heading for a hung parliament with Labour as the largest party.

“Keir Starmer propped up in Downing Street by the SNP, Liberal Democrats and the Greens would be a disaster for Britain.

“The country doesn’t need more political horse trading, but action. We are the only party that has a plan to deliver on the priorities of the people.”

However, other polling experts pointed out that Thrasher’s forecast was based on the assumption that Scotland – where there were no local elections last week – would vote the same way it did in 2019, when Labour won just one seat.

A senior Labour source told HuffPost UK: “That Sunak has put his name to this bollocks is utterly demeaning. He really is a totally empty vessel.”

A former Tory minister said: “It’s a stupid line because he’s essentially telling people to vote Labour to kick us out.”

Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips yesterday accused transport secretary Mark Harper of “grabbing at straws” after he also claimed the local election results showed the opinion polls “are not correct”.