Professor Sir John Curtice, a polling expert, warned overnight that the Conservatives may lose 1,000 seats in the local elections.
People in England voted yesterday, with over 8,000 council seats up for grabs across 230 local authorities.
As the results began to come in overnight, Prof Curtice told the BBC, “The Conservatives cannot be certain that they will not lose 1,000 seats.”
The pollster stated that the Conservatives’ expectation management may have failed and warned Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that a “catastrophe” was on the way.
Meanwhile, a Conservative MP stated, “Rishi is being rejected… this seems worse than May 2019.”
Sir Keir Starmer also boasted he is set to enter 10 Downing Street at the next general election.
The Labour leader made an appearance in Medway this morning after his party seized control of the Kent council from the Tories for the first time since 1998.
He said: “We’re having fantastic results across the country. Plymouth, Stoke, up to Middlesbrough, all the places that we need to win, the battlegrounds.
“And make no mistake we are on course for a Labour majority at the next general election.”
Speaking outside the Conservative campaign headquarters in central London, Rishi Sunak said: “It’s always disappointing to lose hard-working Conservative councillors, they’re friends, they’re colleagues and I’m so grateful to them for everything they’ve done.
“In terms of the results, it’s still early, we’ve just had a quarter of the results in, but what I am going to carry on doing is delivering on the people’s priorities – halving inflation, growing the economy, reducing debt, cutting waiting lists and stopping the boats.
“That’s what people want us to do, that’s what I’m going to keep hard at doing.”