A senior Tory backbencher has said it is "almost impossible" for Rishi Sunak to win the next election - and warned more of his MPs will stand down.
Sir Charles Walker said he thought "quite a lot" of Conservative MPs would quit ahead of the next national poll to avoid 10 years in opposition.
He warned the Prime Minister that Tories will "pay the price" for "playing" with people's finances after Liz Truss trashed the economy with her tax-slashing mini Budget.
His comments came after Labour won a convincing victory in the City of Chester by-election, holding the swing seat for the third time with an increased majority of nearly 11,000 votes.
Keir Starmer hailed the result, saying: "The message to Rishi Sunak's Conservative government is clear: People are fed up of 12 years of Tory rule and want the change Labour offers."
Sir Charles, a former vice chair of the Tory backbench 1922 committee who is stepping down, delivered a withering verdict of his party's chances.
Asked about the state of the party, he told TimesRadio: "It's almost impossible to see us coming back from this. I suspect, we will lose the next general election.
"Now I hope what Rishi Sunak does is make sure Labour doesn't wipe the floor with us, so that we perhaps win 220 seats, and we form a viable opposition, which was not the case in 1997, when we went down to having 165 Members of Parliament."
Gloomy Tories are eying the exit, with 11 MPs already saying they won't stand again, including 29-year-old Red Wall MP Dehenna Davison.
Asked if others might follow them out of the door, Sir Charles said: "I suspect you'll see quite a lot of people standing down as we get nearer the general election.
"I think many of my colleagues won't have made their minds up yet. But I think it's inevitable. I think politics is quite a gruelling vocation to be in.
"But many of my colleagues will be thinking look, do I want to do much more of this?
"Do I want to go down to electoral defeat and have a sort of gruelling six week campaign? Or if they're in really safe seats do I want to be in opposition for 10 years?"
The next election is due in 2024 and Tory MPs have been asked to tell party chiefs whether they want to stand by December 5.
However this is not a hard deadline, so some MPs may not have made up their minds.
