BBC: Greg Hands told Tories are ‘ignoring the voting’

Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party chairman has accidentally let slip a private warning that the three by-elections tomorrow will prove a “challenging night” for the Conservatives.

Photographs uploaded to Flickr show a meeting of Mr Sunak’s political cabinet – a meeting of top ministers to discuss party political issues before the official Cabinet meeting where issues of national policy are debated.

One photo appears to have been uploaded without documents being blurred, allowing the Express to make out the ominous warning.

Mr Hands’s document also seems to warn the Conservative Party that the Government “do not win by-elections”, though he penned the word “usually” after the documents’ blunter “do not”.

The document also references “independent experts” and their polling, which shows the Conservative party “at least eight percent” down compared to something obscured by Mr Hands’s hand.

READ MORE: By-election battlegrounds – Your guide to the 3 crunch Tory seats up for grabs

Optimism can be found, however, in the line that there is “no desire for Labour or Keir Starmer”.

It flags plans to launch an 80/20 seat strategy “regardless of the result”, confirmation that CCHQ is focusing on saving its 80 tightest marginals and then trying to win 20 extra seats at the general election.

The photos of political cabinet were taken by No. 10 photographer Jacob Groet, but uploaded to the Conservative Party’s Flickr account.

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Peter Booth, chairman of the Conservative Party National Convention, was front and centre of the meeting, sitting next to Rishi Sunak at the Cabinet table.

It’s thought the Tories may lose all three by-elections, in Uxbridge, Selby and Somerset.

All three were caused by Tory MP resignations; by Boris Johnson, Nigel Adams and David Warburton respectively.

Mr Sunak is thought to be mulling a reshuffle on Friday in order to distract from the bad headlines, though some argue the switch up of his top ministers won’t happen until September.

The Express contacted No. 10 for comment and CCHQ refused to comment.

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