Rishi Sunak’s election marketing campaign in meltdown as he wants TV debate ‘sport changer’

Rishi Sunak’s election campaign has been sent into meltdown as a mega-poll shows the Tories are heading for wipeout.

His nightmare got even worse tonight as Nigel Farage announced he’s making a return as leader of Reform UK.

Mr Sunak desperately needs to land a knockout blow in Tuesday night’s TV debate, but even his own party appears to have given up hope. He will face Keir Starmer in the first televised showdown of the election campaign. A Tory source said: “Rishi needs a game changer. But it won’t happen.”

The pair will take part in a 70-minute head-to-head on ITV at 9pm on Tuesday. They will face questions from host Julie Etchingham as well as the audience, made up of members of the public.

A mega-poll of almost 60,000 people tonight showed Mr Starmer is on course for a landslide victory. The YouGov survey suggested the Tories could lose 225 of the seats they won in 2019, leaving them with just 140 MPs.

Twelve Cabinet ministers face being booted out including Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt, Grant Shapps, Johnny Mercer and Esther McVey. Predicted casualties on the Tory backbenches include Jacob Rees-Mogg.

The poll predicts Labour would win a gigantic majority of 194 seats, which would be even bigger than Tony Blair got in 1997. It would be the second largest in history, only just behind the 210-seat majority Stanley Baldwin secured in 1924. The Lib Dems are tipped to win 48 seats, up from just 11 at the election almost five years ago. The SNP faces a tricky result in Scotland, returning just 17 MPs, down from 48. The Green Party and Plaid Cymru are each expected to get two.

Flip-flopping Mr Farage said he will stand to be an MP for Reform UK. The politician, who has failed seven times to get elected to the Commons, will be the candidate in Clacton, Essex. He will also take over as the leader of Reform UK, in a hammer blow to Tory hopes.

Mr Farage had said he wouldn’t stand to be an MP after Mr Sunak called the General Election, complaining that the six-week campaign was “not long enough”. But with only days to go until the deadline for candidates, the former Ukip leader performed a major U-turn and said he would throw his hat into the ring after all.

At an emergency press conference in London, Mr Farage said: “Difficult though it is, I can’t let down those millions of people, I simply can’t do it, it’d be wrong. “So I have decided I’ve changed my mind, it’s allowed you know, it’s not always a sign of weakness, it could potentially be a sign of strength. So I am going to stand in this election.”

But his previous comments about the Essex town may come back to haunt him. In February, asked: “Do I want to be an MP? Do I want to spend every Friday for the next five years in Clacton?” Asked about his remarks by the Mirror, he said it was a “huge commitment” to devote that much time to politics again.

Mr Farage’s return to the fray is a disaster for Mr Sunak, who has failed to make a dent in Labour’s commanding poll lead since the start of the campaign. The Tories have been desperately trying to woo Reform UK voters with pledges to bring back National Service and help pensioners, but have so far failed to move the dial.

Mr Farage claimed there was “every chance” Reform UK wins more votes than the Tories. He said: “I genuinely believe we can get more votes in this election than the Conservative Party. They are on the verge of total collapse.”

Mr Sunak suffered a fresh humiliation earlier as he was photobombed by Lib Dem activists on a boat as he spoke to voters in Henley-on-Thames.