Jeremy Hunt warns that his own seat is now on a knife edge with 'less than 1,500 votes'
The Chancellor's confession will spark panic among his MP colleagues defending much smaller majorities.
The Conservatives’ pending general election crisis has been laid bare by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt this morning, as he has confessed that his constituency majority is set to crumble to the Liberal Democrats.
Speaking to Bloomberg this morning, Mr Hunt admitted that the seat “is probably going to be won or lost by the Conservatives by 1,500 votes or fewer”.
Even this confession demonstrates the huge political changes seen in the so-called ‘Blue Wall’ in recent years.
As recently as 2015, Mr Hunt enjoyed a mega 28,556 majority in the wealthy Surrey seat.
However by 2019 this had fallen to 8,817, amid a huge insurgency by the anti-Brexit Lib Dems.
Britain Elects, the reputable polling aggregator, doesn’t share Mr Hunt’s optimism about the seat however.
Predicting a Portillo moment in which the Chancellor of the Exchequer will be swept from power on election night, they forecast the seat will be easily taken by the LibDems with a swing of 14 percent, and leaving them with an 8.3 percent majority over the Conservatives.
The confession from the Chancellor will leave Tories in the rest of the country with more marginal seats quaking.
Over the past couple of days, the Conservatives’ campaign message has notably pivoted away from trying to win the election and towards preventing Keir Starmer from winning a super majority landslide.
This morning, Grant Shapps warned that should Sir Keir win a majority on par or even larger than that won by Tony Blair in 1997, it would endanger Britain.
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The Defence Secretary warned that it would be “unwise” to give Labour “unchecked” power.
He added it would put the UK in a “dangerous place”, by allowing a Labour government to do whatever it wants without scrutiny or opposition.
His comments came after it was revealed that the Tories are now pushing an advert on Facebook suggesting that they could come third to the Liberal Democrats if Reform UK splits the right-wing vote.
The video includes a graph showing the party left with just 57 seats, behind the LibDems on 61 which would then allow Sir Ed Davey to become the official leader of the opposition.
However it warns that, even with as much as 18 percent of the vote, Reform UK could still fail to win any seats.
The ad VoiceOver warns: “The more votes for Reform, the LibDems, or anyone else, will hand Labour 100 extra seats, giving Keir Starmer the largest majority Labour have ever had”.
With Reform still winning no seats at all. With the LibDems on board with everything Keir Starmer wants to do, a vote for Reform or the LibDems mean you’ll have no one holding Keir Starmer to account on your behalf.
“This means you’ll be handing him a blank cheque to spend on anything he wants with no control over what it will cost you.”
The attack ad has left many viewers with the impression that the Conservatives are now merely fighting to remain the official opposition in the next parliament, and avoid being wiped out altogether.
