Rishi Sunak will call a General Election in autumn 2024 in a desperate attempt to cling onto power, it is claimed.
The floundering PM reportedly hopes that breaking with the convention of going to the polls in the spring will give him more time to turn around a gaping Labour lead.
The Tories are trailing the opposition in the polls with voter confidence plummeting after three Prime Ministers since the 2019 election.
In a blistering attack, Labour leader Keir Starmer today said that the Government must be held to account for the country's stagnant economy and the cost-of-living crisis.
But Mr Sunak hasn't given up hope of an unlikely turnaround, insiders said.
According to The Telegraph, he is planning on calling an election in October or November next year.
By that stage he hopes to have brought in new legislation to tackle the small boats crisis, which he has set as one of his top priorities, insiders say.
Such a move would mean he would have been in office for two years by the time the general election is held.
It is understood Mr Sunak and his aides have rejected plans for a spring election due to the size of the "political repair job" they face.
At the moment the Tories are an average of 18 points behind Labour in the polls, but this is down from 24 in October when the PM took over.
The Mirror has repeatedly called for an immediate general election, after Tory party members and MPs were allowed to choose two Prime Ministers without the public having a say.
The Tories are expected to face heavy losses in next month's local elections, with the cost of living crisis and pressures on the NHS leaving voters clamouring for change.
Labour will today launch a blistering attack on Rishi Sunak over tax loopholes - with Keir Starmer branding him the "chief architect" of the UK's economic woes.
A new advert claiming the PM thinks it is right to raise taxes for working people despite his family benefitting from tax loopholes was posted this morning.
Labour plans to focus its attention on Mr Sunak's economic policies having been criticised over a series of ads on Tory failures tackling crime.
In a memo to the shadow cabinet, Mr Starmer said that while the current PM was Chancellor, he "wasted public money handing over billions to fraudsters at every turn".
The latest advert, to be published later today, asks: "Do you think it's right to raise taxes for working people when your family has benefitted from a tax loophole? Rishi Sunak does."
It says that the Tories have raised taxes 24 times since the 2019 election, and accused the Government of refusing to close the non-dom loophole.
The PM's wife Akshata Murty saved millions in taxes by claiming non-domicile status, it emerged last year.
Writing to shadow cabinet colleagues, Mr Starmer said Labour cannot let the PM off the hook over the UK's economic performance.
The opposition leader said Labour must "continue to focus relentlessly on exposing the failures of 13 years of this divided and weak Conservative government and demonstrate how we would deliver for working people across the country".
He said: " Rishi Sunak is the chief architect of choices prioritising the wealthiest and of the government’s failure to get a grip of the economy and get growth going.
"The Prime Minister is the Chancellor who oversaw Britain going into the pandemic so exposed that we suffered the biggest economic hit of major economies. He wasted public money handing over billions to fraudsters at every turn.
"He oversaw a stalling recovery which means that we’re the only major economy still not bigger than before the pandemic."
