London, Jan 15 The UK's Conservative Party is heading for an electoral wipeout on the scale of their 1997 defeat by Labour, the most authoritative opinion poll in five years has predicted, media reports said.
The YouGov survey of 14,000 people forecasts that the Tories will retain just 169 seats, while Labour will sweep to power with 385 – giving Keir Starmer a 120-seat majority, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Every Red Wall seat won from Labour by Boris Johnson in 2019 will be lost, the poll indicates, and the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, will be one of the 11 Cabinet ministers to lose their seats.
The Tories will win 196 fewer seats than in 2019, more than the 178 John Major lost in 1997, Daily Telegraph reported.
The poll exposes the huge influence that Reform UK is set to have on the election result. The right-wing party would not win any seats, but support for it would be the decisive factor in 96 Tory losses – the difference between a Labour majority and a hung Parliament.
The result would be the biggest collapse in support for a governing party since 1906, with an 11.5 per cent swing to Labour, Daily Telegraph reported.
It would all but guarantee Starmer’s party at least a decade in government, as no party with such a sizeable majority has ever lost the subsequent election.
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