RISHI Sunak should fight until the end of the PM race, despite trailing in the polls, Grant Shapps has said.
HOARak ally compared polls showing the ex-Chancellor badly losing to Brexit surveys that predicted Remain would win the 2016 referendum.
Rishi Sunak is trailing 32 point behind Liz Truss in the latest polling on the PM race
Grant Shapps, who is back Rishi Sunak, said he should fight on till the end of the leadership contest
Mr Shapps told Sky News this morning: “We will know who the new Prime Minister is in a little over two weeks.
“I don’t think it would be right for either side to not allow a formal vote to go ahead and if there is one thing we have learned from the last few years is, think of the 2015 election, I was party chairman at the time, everyone said we couldn’t win the election.
“I think of the 2016 Brexit poll where everyone was pretty sure the country was about to vote for Remain.”
The Transport Secretary added that it would be a “very good idea” to wait until every vote is signed, sealed and delivered before anyone makes a dramatic move, like dropping out.
Mr Sunak is adamant he will keep going, right up until the last day of the race.
Yesterday he said: “I really passionately believe that my plan is the right one for the country, and I’m going to fight hard till the last day of this thing.”
Card carrying Conservatives have less than three weeks to pick the next PM.
The results will then be announced on Monday September 5.
Liz Truss is by far the hot favourite to win, with the latest polling of Tory members by YouGov putting her 32 points ahead of rival Mr Sunak.
Brexit surveys that predicted Remain would win weeks before the result were mostly within the margin of error.
According to the same survey 57 per cent of members have already voted.
Of them, 68 per cent say they voted for Ms Truss, with 31 per cent choosing Mr Sunak.
Among those who haven’t yet voted, 44 per cent think they’ll choose the frontrunner, 29 per cent are more in favour of the underdog and 26 per cent are still undecided.
For the first time this week more MPs publicly backed Ms Truss to win than Mr Sunak.
The Foreign Secretary is blazing ahead with 136 MP fans, while the ex-Chancellor sits on 124.
