Kemi Badenoch has been accused of throwing in the towel before a vote has been cast in May’s local elections.
The Conservative leader warned Tory supporters to brace for a “very difficult” set of results for the party as voters go to the polls next Thursday.
She is leading the Tories into the local elections against a high watermark set by Boris Johnson at the peak of his popularity in 2021.
And, setting expectations low for her first electoral test as leader of the Conservatives, Ms Badenoch told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We lost last year in a historic defeat - these elections are going to be very difficult for Conservatives.
"Two-thirds of the seats four years ago we won - there's no way we are going to be able to do that again."
She added: "Protest is in the air - protest parties are doing well at the moment.
"It's really important that we take time to get things right - rebuild trust with the public and have a credible offer.
"I'm not saying everything we did was correct - that's why we've seen support for other parties."
The Liberal Democrats said Ms Badenoch has “thrown in the towel before a single vote has been counted in next week's local elections”.
Deputy leader Daisy Cooper added: “The Conservative Party doesn't have any answers on the big issues facing the country, because their fingerprints of failure are all over them.
"The Conservatives trashed the NHS, blew a hole in the public finances and allowed water companies to commit an environmental catastrophe with sewage dumping.
"It's up to the public to decide what issues they will be voting on at these elections, and many will be voting to deliver another message to the Conservatives on the mess in which they’ve left the country and local services."
The local elections are expected to deliver bleak results for both Labour and the Conservatives, with Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK stealing votes from the left and right of both.
Amid a growing wave of discontent at the state of the country, the arch-Brexiteer is heading into next Thursday’s vote leading in the polls and hoping to solidify Reform as a true threat to Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Badenoch.
A bombshell seat-level poll by More in Common on Sunday showed Mr Farage is on course to become prime minister, with the pollster’s director Luke Tryl saying: “British politics has fragmented to an unprecedented level.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Ms Badenoch defended her performance as Tory leader, saying that despite her dire approval ratings she has ended infighting within the party.
“I think the biggest thing people will notice is that if you picked up the papers this time last year, you would have been reading about Tory rows and Tory infighting,” Ms Badenoch said.
“All of that is gone,” she said.
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