Recent polls have suggested that even Rishi Sunak's Yorkshire seat may not be secure at the polls. Photo: Leon Neal/Poole via REUTERS
The Tories have advised candidates in «unwinnable» northern seats to move the campaign south to avoid a historic general election defeat.
Even Tories attempting to win seats where the Conservative majority reaches 7,000 have been told to effectively throw in the towel and help hold on to safer seats.
It comes after a Telegraph poll published on Wednesday predicted the party would retain just 53 MPs, a historic defeat, with even Rishi Sunak in number of voters.
The Conservatives continue to trail Labor by around 20 points with just under two weeks until election day.
One email from the Conservative party's regional head of field operations, seen by The Telegraph, was sent over the weekend with the subject line: «Campaign support — not in the north.»< /p>
It thanked candidates for their support in northern constituencies but asked them to take a «pragmatic approach» and focus their campaign efforts on seats in the south instead.
The message, sent to candidates in seats currently held by Labour, said: «Thank you for standing up in the north.»
«As much as I would like you to help a target seat in the north by taking a pragmatic approach, I am sure there is a seat that is much closer to home [or] work.»
It added: “If you feel the need to pop up and make some videos, great, but there's no pressure from me. Time is valuable, and hours spent in the car do not (sic) votes, thank you.”
The Telegraph has also learned that candidates across the UK seeking election to Tory-majority seats in the 2019 election were effectively told to give up as they would lose and campaign elsewhere.
The fact is, That Conservative candidates in party-held seats are being told to no longer fight their own elections is a clear sign of how dire the campaign views the state of the race.
The Conservatives felt their support had suffered from the rise of reform and the return of Nigel Farage. On Thursday Redfield & Wilton Strategies became the third research firm to show that Reform received a larger share of the vote than Conservatives.
G Mr Sunak, speaking in Wales on Friday, will give his sharpest assessment yet of the campaign to gauge voters' views of his party, urging them not to let Labor waltz to victory.
He will say: “I know that you are disappointed with our party, disappointed with me. But don't let Labor rush into office without examining them, without seeing what their policies will mean for our country and the safety of your family.
«Do you really know what you're going to get from Labor?»
The speech is deliberately written to echo a speech given by Sir John Major, then Prime Minister of the Conservative Party, during the 1992 election campaign, which called on voters to “wake up” to the dangers of the Labor government. As a result, he won an unexpected victory.
Sir John said in this speech: “I am warning people. Don't fall into Labour's trap. Don't sleepwalk on Thursday. This is not a by-election. It will determine who forms the government on Friday and who will govern our country for five years.»
Voter Anger
Mr Sunak's admission that voters are disappointed with him personally, and not just the Conservative Party, is underway further than his usual acknowledgment of voter anger.
The Tory campaign was marred by missteps, including a row that ended with Mr Sunak apologizing after leaving D-Day celebrations early in Normandy.
Tory strategists and senior Cabinet ministers in recent weeks changed their campaign tactics, warning voters not to give Labor a “super majority”, apparently acknowledging that they expected to lose.
It is against this backdrop that party bosses have asked slim majority MPs and candidates in Labour's «unsuitable» seats to effectively abandon their campaigns and join forces to defend safer constituencies.
One Conservative candidate in a Labour-held northern seat said: “Everyone has been given another seat to go and campaign. If you have connections elsewhere, reach out to them — that's the point. More resources are definitely heading south.»
A second added: «If you're in a completely unwinnable seat in the Labor Party, you'll be assigned marginals nearby.»
The Telegraph understands that not only Tory candidates in Labour-held seats but also candidates in constituencies won by the Conservatives have been asked to abandon their races, with some winning majorities of up to 7,000 votes in the 2019 election, The Telegraph understands.
This only applies to new candidates. It is understood that sitting MPs who were Conservative MPs seeking re-election before the election did not receive these instructions.
One MP seeking re-election took a Red Wall seat, attracting the Conservatives for the first time. once in a generation in 2019 it was assumed that he was not receiving support from the center.
Another noted that he had only had one ministerial visit, while at the same time at the last election he was visited by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and two cabinet ministers.
Advocates of this approach told The Telegraph about this. Election campaigns often have to make difficult decisions about resources as election day approaches.
One Conservative candidate said decisions should have been made even earlier, adding: “These calls have taken too long.”