Rishi Sunak warned he needs to make one big move to save Tories at General Election

Senior Tories told Rishi Sunak now is the time to make a big tax-cutting offer to voters to turn around the party’s fortunes.

Former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said many Conservative voters stayed at home in local polls because they are “deeply angry and unhappy” with the failure to deliver.

But he warned the general election is still up for grabs if the PM and party fight for it.

Writing in the Daily Express, he said: “Despite the bad results it is not over yet. We must clear the decks and recognise that in the next few months nothing else matters but delivering on the public’s priorities.

“The only question that matters is are we Conservatives up for the fight?”

MPs called for reforms to help pensioners dragged into paying out for the first time in retirement, help for the self-employed and drastic curbs on green levies to be introduced.

The demands come after the Prime Minister was dealt after Labour claimed a series of key victories in the local elections.

A Downing Street source said the results were “disappointing” and it was difficult to lose talented people.

But the insider insisted the vote share achieved by Labour shows Keir Starmer is “yet to seal the deal” and would have to rely on a rainbow coalition of the SNP, Greens and Lib Dems.

“The PM is up for the fight and is working continuously to keep delivering,” the source added.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “It is time to show that we are on the side of the voters rather than the bureaucracy.”

Ranil Jayawardena, a former Cabinet minister and chairman of the Conservative Growth Group, said: “Having cut NI by £900 for the average worker, we need to turn our attention to many in the squeezed middle – the police sergeants, experienced schoolteachers and junior doctors – who shouldn’t be paying 40pc tax, by lifting that threshold.

“And we need to take action on Inheritance Tax. It’s an unpopular tax. It’s double tax. It’s a death tax – and it’s got to go.”

One recommendation from Tories is for the threshold when workers start paying the 40p tax rate to be

Lifted to over £80,000 from £50,271 after many middle income workers have been dragged into paying the higher level.

Sir John Redwood called for income tax thresholds to be looked at to help pensioners being dragged into tax as well as targeted tax cuts for the self-employed.

He said: “I think you need to do dramatic things on tax cuts and targeted spending.

“You have got to resolve the pay problems in the health service, you have really got to get those waiting lists down with energy and you have got to give tax cuts for all age groups, not just those of working: “They also need to review net-zero policy, because everytime a net-zero policy results in a higher tax, a higher charge, a higher price or a ban the public is very unhappy.

“As all the other parties are signed up to those things and want to do more of them we should make it very clear we are climate realists and we are going to have policies that are lighter on peop;e#s pockets and lighter on taxpayers because the subsidies and intervention costs are scheduled to rise quite steeply in the next few years.”

Labour’s Lord Blunkett said the party would win a majority if the election was held imminently but warned a lot can happen between now and the expected autumn poll.

He warned the party will not “win by the landslide” many are predicting.

Analysis by respected academics Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher found Labour “struggled” to match its opinion poll ratings in the local elections, despite some eye-catching successes.

They said the party gained scarcely more seats overall than the Greens and various Independents combined.

The pair calculated the “national equivalent vote”, putting the Tories on 27%, with Labour on 34%.

That would lead to a hung parliament if repeated at a general election on a uniform swing.

Mr Sunak was given a boost on Friday when Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen was returned for a third term.

But Saturday’s results were bleaker, with Labour’s Richard Parker seized victory from outgoing Conservative mayor Andy Street by a mere 1,508 votes.

Labour also stormed to victory in the London mayoral poll, with Sadiq Khan securing a historic third term in office, with a majority of some 275,000 over Conservative rival Susan Hall.

With the results of 107 councils in England that held elections on May 2 declared, Labour has won 1,158 seats, an increase of more than 232.

The Liberal Democrats beat the Tories into second place, winning 552 seats, up nearly 100.

The Tories were just behind on 515 seats, down nearly 400.

Ex-home secretary Suella Braverman lashed out at the Prime Minister over the “terrible” results and said she was in “despair”.

The prominent critic of Mr Sunak said it was too late to change leader now but told how she regrets backing him in the first place.

She told BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “There is no spinning these results, there is no disguising the fact that these have been terrible election results for the Conservatives and they suggest that we are heading to a Labour government and that fills me with horror.

“At this rate, we’ll be lucky to have any Conservative MPs at the next election, and we need to fight.

“I love my country, I care about my party and I want us to win, and I am urging the prime minister to change course, to with humility reflect on what voters are telling us, and change the plan and the way that he is communicating and leading us.”

Ms Braverman said a change of leadership was not a “feasible prospect right now”.

“We don’t have enough time and it is impossible for anyone new to come and change our fortunes to be honest,” he added.

“There is no superman or superwoman out there who can do it.”

Instead Ms Bravernamn called on Mr Sunak to “own” the result, adding: “Therefore he needs to fix it.”

She claimed Tory voters were currently “on strike”, and warned: “I talk to many of my colleagues who are privately demoralised and incredibly concerned about the prospects.

“At this rate we will be lucky to have any Conservative MPs at the next election.”