UK’s prime polling guru says it is ‘too late’ for Sunak and highlights massive mistake

It is “too late” for Rishi Sunak to turn around his campaign, the UK’s top polling guru has said.

Professor Sir John Curtice said the PM has focused on the wrong things, while also carrying the can for mistakes made by his predecessors. He told an audience in London that the Tories could end up with anything between 50 and 150 MPs after July 4.

Asked if there was anything Mr Sunak could do at this late stage to revive things, Sir John said: “To be honest on Sunak it’s too late. You’re not going to turn around a campaign like that at this stage.”

But he said former Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss carry a lot of the blame for the crushing defeat the Tories are likely to suffer. And he predicted that Mr Sunak is likely to be punished for focusing too much on tax cuts and immigration in the build up to the election.

They would have been better to have put more emphasis on improving the NHS and the economy, Sir John said. The polling expert told an event hosted by IPPR and iNHouse Communications: “The fundamental mistakes were made by Boris and Liz Truss.

“The fundamental mistakes they made were last autumn believing that tax cuts and a focus on immigration would be able to turn things around. Some of this could have told them, ‘no, no, no, this is not going to work. You need to focus on the health service and you need to focus on trying to improve the economy’.

“And those are the two things that the party is really not wanted to focus on.” Mr Sunak has been plagued by horrendous errors since he called a snap election last month, this week finding himself bogged down in the unfolding betting scandal.

At the same event former No10 aide Katie Perrior warned the Tories will tear through leaders in the next couple of years. Ms Perrior, who was director of communications under Theresa May, believes Mr Sunak is unlikely to stick around.

And whoever steps up after a messy leadership contest will likely have both Labour and Nigel Farage to contend with in the Commons. Ms Perrior said: “I think it’s going to be quite some time and we’re going to plough through a couple of leaders before the Conservative Party sorts itself out with no money.” She said candidates had told her that support has withered away in this campaign while donations have dried up.

The ex-comms chief said: “You can speak to Conservative candidates who will tell you no one’s coming out, no one’s giving any money, no one’s delivering leaflets, no one’s willing to knock on doors. It kind of vanished somewhat. So there is a real kind of problem with not only an ageing support base not willing to turn out, no donors coming forward.

“This is a really stark situation where you don’t have money, you don’t have any voter base to come and support you.”