Don't give Starmer a super-majority, says Shapps as Tories seem to admit defeat

A CABINET minister pleaded with voters today not to give Sir Keir Starmer a "super-majority" in comments which may be seen as effectively conceding that the Tories will lose the general election.

- Nicholas Cecil and Jitendra Joshi

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps argued that if Labour gets a majority "of the size of Blair's or even bigger" it would place Britain in a "dangerous place"

The surprise comments came amid Tory suggestions that they could end up with as few as 57 MPs, if voters desert them in large numbers for Reform UK.

A series of polls show the Conservatives trailing Labour by around 20 points.

Amid the grim outlook for the Tories, they appeared to be adopting a dra-1 matic shift in tactics to limit the size of a Labour victory on July 4.

Mr Shapps told Times Radio: "If you want to make sure that in this next Government, whoever forms it that there is a proper system of accountability, then we would argue that you don't want to have somebody receive a super-majority. In this case, the concern would be if Keir Starmer were to go into No10, it will either be Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer, and if that power was unchecked it would be very bad news for people in this country."