Britons overwhelming do not believe Rishi Sunak’s claim the country is heading towards a hung parliament at the next election, a new poll has found.
The prime minister said he believes the local election results - which saw Tories get roundly beaten - actually show Labour will fall short of a overall majority.
But according to a YouGov survey published on Tuesday, only 18% of people agree with Sunak.
The poll showed 57% of people expect there to be a Labour majority after the general election. And only 6% expect the Conservatives to win a majority.
The Conservatives lost nearly 500 council seats at the local elections last week, as well as all but one mayoral race.
In the wake of the results Sunak all but admitted he is on course to be kicked out of Downing Street.
But he suggested while things looked grim for the Tories, it did not mean Keir Starmer was necessarily going to win outright.
“These results suggest we are heading for a hung parliament with Labour as the largest party,” he said.
Sunak’s comments were a reference to a projection by the polling expert Michael Thrasher.
The Sky News analyst said the local elections suggested Labour’s lead over the Conservatives is just seven points, well short of what opinion polls have been saying for months.
If that was repeated at the general election, it would leave Starmer short of an overall majority, Thrasher said.
But that interpretation of the local elections has been challenged by other polling and election experts.
Ben Page, global chief executive of Ipsos, said the Conservatives were as popular as “a cup of cold sick” and the idea Labour would not win a majority was “for the birds”.
“We haven’t seen anything of this kind since just before Labour won a landslide in 1997,” he said.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said: “If Rishi Sunak is so convinced the election is so close there is one way to test that, call a general election and let the people decide.”
Earlier on Tuesday, work and pensions secretary Mel Stride said it would be “some months” until the PM called the election.