Rishi Sunak insists predictions of Tory defeat are ‘not going to stop me’

Polling expert Sir John Curtice said there was more chance of lightning striking twice in the same place than Mr Sunak returning to No 10.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during an early morning visit to an Ocado packing plant in Luton (Jonathan Brady/PA) (PA Wire)

Rishi Sunak has insisted predictions of a Tory defeat are “not going to stop me” after the likelihood of his return to Downing Street was put at less than “lightning striking twice in the same place” by a polling expert.

Asked during a BBC Breakfast interview whether he accepted the analysis by elections guru Professor Sir John Curtice, the Prime Minister said: “That’s his view.

“That’s not going to stop me from working as hard as I can over these final few days to talk to as many people as possible about the choice,” Mr Sunak said, from a supermarket in Oxfordshire.

“I was up at 4 this morning talking to workers at a distribution facility. I’m here talking to you. I’ll be out till the last moment of this campaign, because I think it’s a really important choice for the country.”

Mr Sunak kicked off a final push for votes on the last two days of the campaign with an early-morning visit to an Ocado packing plant in Bedfordshire and a stop at a Morrisons near Witney – the former Oxfordshire seat of Lord David Cameron where the Tories won with a 15,200 majority in 2019.

In a last-ditch attempt to rally wavering Conservative voters, the Tory leader will claim in a speech later on Tuesday that just 130,000 voters could prevent a Labour “supermajority”.

He denied his switch from talking about his policy plans to warnings about a landslide for Sir Keir Starmer was the language of defeat.

“No, I’m very much still talking to people about our plan,” he said.

“My point is, if the polls are to believed and Labour win a big majority, they will be unchecked and unaccountable to people, and that will give them license to put up everyone’s taxes and make us a soft touch on migration when it comes to the entire European continent.”

Mr Sunak also defended the Tory campaign, which Sir Keir criticised as “desperate”.

Asked if he had got the campaign wrong, after it was hit by debacles including his early D-Day departure and the gambling row, the Prime Minister said: “No, actually. Everywhere I’ve been going, people are waking up to the dangers of what a Labour government would mean for them, particularly when it comes to taxes.”

He said that under the Tories, things are “undeniably” better than they were a few years ago.

Speaking to staff at a distribution company in Banbury, Mr Sunak said “we’re on the downhill slope” when it came to inflation, taxes and energy bills, which would be “reversed” if Labour was victorious on Thursday.

“If I’m not standing here next week, you won’t get those tax cuts,” he said.

With the poll deficit to Labour failing to narrow, the Tory strategy has shifted towards preventing bleeding votes to Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats, and saving as many MPs as possible to form an effective opposition.

In a plea to would-be Reform voters, Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho said the issues they are concerned about, including immigration and wanting politicians to “stand up for British values”, “we’re concerned about as well”.

She told Times Radio: “My message to them is if you want people who can actually be in government, who can actually tackle the things that you’re worried about, then actually the Conservatives can do that.”

Meanwhile, Sir Keir said the Tories were running “an increasingly desperate, negative campaign”.

“They have literally got nothing to say to the electorate as we go into Thursday,” the Labour leader told a campaign event in Nottinghamshire.

Tory attacks on his desire to spend Friday evenings with his family were a sign of “increasing desperation bordering on hysterical,” said Sir Keir, whose campaign tour will later head to Derbyshire and Staffordshire.

Asked what he would do first after entering No 10, he criticised “14 years of self-entitlement under the Tories” and said: “The very first thing I’d do is change the mindset of politics, and the mindset needs to be politics of service.”

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey continued his action-packed campaign tour by knocking over a line of big blue dominoes with a Lib Dem yellow one as he called for voters to help his party topple Conservative MPs.

On a visit to Taunton and Wellington, a marginal constituency, he said: “On July 4, people have the chance to make sure the Conservative dominoes fall across the ‘blue wall’ and West Country, and make sure a Liberal Democrat MP can take your concerns right to the heart of Parliament.”