Suella Braverman has launched an extraordinary post-mortem of the Tories’ election before polling day – blaming failure to tackle immigration and ‘woke’ policies.
The former home secretary insisted the contest is already ‘over’ and Conservatives must focus on the coming ‘fight for the soul’ of the party.
She argued that support had been ‘evaporating’ on the left and the right, with Nigel Farage’s Reform splitting the traditional vote, and the next move will decide whether the party ‘continues to exist at all’.
The brutal intervention comes as polls suggest Keir Starmer is on track for an enormous landslide tomorrow, picking up more seats than Tony Blair did in 1997.
A huge Survation poll last night – conducted using the MRP method – found Reform splitting the right-wing vote will gift Sir Keir the biggest Commons majority in history, while Tory numbers fall to a record low.
Touring broadcast studios this morning, Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride acknowledged that the Conservatives are on track for a dire result.
He said Labour is almost certain to get an ‘extraordinary landslide on a scale that has probably never, ever been seen in this country before’.
Ms Braverman herself is projected to hold on in Fareham & Waterlooville with a far smaller majority – although many of her potential rivals for the leadership could fall by the wayside.
Writing in The Telegraph, Ms Braverman said victory should no longer be the goal for the Tories.
‘Thursday’s vote is now all about forming a strong enough opposition,’ she wrote.
‘One needs to read the writing on the wall: it’s over, and we need to prepare for the reality and frustration of opposition.’
Ms Braverman blamed the situation on a fracture within the Conservative Party resulting from the surge by Reform.
She said: ‘It is notable that Labour’s vote share has not markedly increased in recent weeks, but our vote is evaporating from both Left and Right.
‘The critics will cite Boris (Johnson), Liz (Truss), Rwanda, and, I can immodestly predict, even me as all being fatal to our ‘centrist’ vote.
‘The reality is rather different: we are haemorrhaging votes largely to Reform. Why? Because we failed to cut immigration or tax or deal with the net zero and woke policies we have presided over for 14 years.
‘We may lose hundreds of excellent MPs because of our abject inability to have foreseen this inevitability months ago: that our failure to unite the Right would destroy us.’
Ms Braverman said the Tories need ‘a searingly honest post-match analysis’, ‘because the fight for the soul of the Conservative Party will determine whether we allow Starmer a clear run at destroying our country for good or having a chance to redeem it in due course’.
‘Indeed, it will decide whether our party continues to exist at all,’ she added.