Tories on course for one of the worst byelection result in history in Mid Beds, secret party polling reveals
INTERNAL Tory polling has them on just 11 per cent in Mid Beds - putting them on course for one of the worst election defeats in history.
The once rock-solid Tory seat is held by Nadine Dorries who has a thumping majority of nearly 25,000.
But polling secretly shared with Tory MPs says just 11 per cent of locals definitely plan to vote Tory at the next election.
One Tory MP who has seen the polling said: “It is beyond bad - it looks like it will be a total bloodbath.”
Ms Dorries announced she is quitting Parliament in fury claiming she was blocked from getting a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours.
But she has still not handed in her resignation papers so no date for the byelection is set.
Rishi Sunak’s allies reckon she is hanging on until the Tory conference in October to inflict maximum damage on No10.
The PM - who hit the by-election campaign trail in Selby in Yorkshire yesterday - is currently drawing up plans to reshuffle his frontbench.
The Sun on Sunday understands that junior members of the government are begging the government for a reshuffle - because they want to quit.
Several MPs who are parliamentary private secretaries - commonly known as a PPSs the first rung on the ministerial ladder - say they want to be fired so they can spend more time working their seat ahead of the election.
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One told The Sun on Sunday: “I keep asking the chief whip when the reshuffle will be - I don’t want to be a PPS any more! We want to work our seats.”