Tories on election ‘war footing’

THE Tory chairman has put the party on a war footing for a possible spring election – even as polls reveal it is less popular with voters now than during Liz Truss’s disastrous premiership.

Richard Holden insisted victory ‘is really within our grasp’ as he said voters would come to see that Rishi Sunak is on their side, compared with ‘slippery’ Sir Keir Starmer.

But pollsters JL Partners said the rise of Nigel Farage-backed Reform UK has hit the Tories hard with 15 per cent of their 019 voters switching to the new Right-wing party due to dismay over immigration.

Another 18 per cent of 019 Tory voters have gone over to Labour, a figure likely to include a number of former Labour voters who were alienated under Jeremy Corbyn.