Cabinet minister Grant Shapps has appeared to concede defeat for the Conservatives saying his party were fighting to prevent Sir Keir Starmer's Labour securing a "supermajority" bigger even than the 1997 landslide.

The Defence Secretary told Times Radio the Tories were still fighting for every seat and "the polls have been wrong before".

But he said to ensure proper accountability "you don't want to have somebody receive a supermajority" along the line of Tony Blair's in 1997 as he reinstated his party's stance that Labour would increase taxes for people by £2000 a year - a claim party leader Sir Keir Starmer has denied.

Mr Shapps said: "In this case, of course, the concern would be that if Keir Starmer were to go into No 10 - it will either be Rishi Sunak, or Keir Starmer there's no other outcomes to this election - and that power was in some way unchecked, it would be very bad news for people in this country.

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"A blank cheque approach allowing someone to do anything they wanted, particularly when their particular set of plans are so vague, and they say 'change', but you have no idea what they actually want to change to, other than the fact that they've outlined plans which would cost £2,094 to every working family in this country."

He added: "It's perfectly legitimate to say the country doesn't function well when you get majorities the size of Blair's or even bigger and we would say there are a lot of very good, hardworking MPs who can hold the government of the day to account and we'd say those are Conservative MPs."

The SNP candidate for West Dunbartonshire, Martin Docherty-Hughes said: "Grant Shapps has confirmed what the SNP has been saying for quite some time now: the Tories are toast. This is no longer an election, it's a coronation. 

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"The real choice now for Scottish voters is who is best placed to represent their values and interests, and who will stand up for them at Westminster when £18 billion of public service cuts come hurtling down the line.

"The real choice is whether we give Sir Keir Starmer a free pass to impose more public service cuts, or whether we have a strong Scottish voice there to stop him. The Labour Party will always put the Westminster status quo before Scotland, and they'll have no reason to change that habit with a huge majority. Scotland needs a party who always puts our interests first, and that's what the SNP will always do.

"On the 4th of July, vote SNP to reject Westminster austerity plans, put Scotland's interests first, and help build a future made in Scotland, for Scotland."

Later, Rishi Sunak insisted he had "absolutely not" lost hope of winning the General Election and was still fighting to win.

The Prime Minister warned against giving Sir Keir Starmer a "blank cheque" if he won power, but stressed that he was still hopeful of victory pointing to pledges made in his party's manifesto unveiled yesterday.

Asked by journalists if the change in tone showed the Tories had conceded defeat, the Prime Minister said: "No absolutely not. What you saw yesterday is we've put a manifesto forward which has got a very clear set of tax cuts for the country tax cuts at every stage of your life.

"Whether you're working or setting up a small business, tax cuts when you're trying to buy your first home, tax cut for pensioners, and tax cuts for families.

"And I'm really energised to now have a chance to put a very clear plan to the country and talk about all the things I want to do."