James Cleverly warned that Sir Keir Starmer will “distort” the political system in his favour if he gets the keys to No 10 on Thursday. 

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He blasted that the General Election is not about giving the Tories a “telling off” for their mistakes over the last 14 years – and voters should be worried about hidden Labour tax rises. 

He told the BBC: “The reason that this is so important, is because Labour have already said they are going to gerrymander the system, they have said they’re going to pack out the House of Lords, they’ve said they’re going to get votes at 16, they’re going to get votes for foreign nationals, they’re probably going to get votes for criminals.

“They are determined to have a permanent Labour government and they are quite willing to distort the British political system to get that – that is what is at stake. 

“This is not an election which is about giving the Conservatives a bit of a telling off, and many people might think that is legitimate.

“This is about the next five years and beyond and Labour are going to put up taxes, that is inevitable because of the spending commitments they’ve already made, let alone the ones they’ve hidden from people.

“They have said they’re going to distort the political system and I think there’s a real risk, there is a genuine risk that they take a majority if that is what they get to try and lock in their power permanently, because they don’t really feel confident that they’re going to be able to make a credible case to the British people at the next general election.”

He said there is “no credible analysis” to say that Reform could be the largest opposition party.

He told Sky News: “There is no no credible analysis at all that indicates that that is possible.

“The best case scenario is predicted that Reform might get a small handful of MPs but in doing so, give Labour a huge majority, which they would use to bring in votes at 16, votes for prisoners, votes for foreign nationals.

“They’re determined to gerrymander the system to get a permanent Labour government and I don’t think that’s what Conservative voters or potential Reform voters want.”

Asked if any of his party colleagues were having their “head turned” by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, Mr Cleverly said: “I don’t know anyone in my party that is being seduced by that.”

He added: “I’ve made it very, very clear on numerous occasions that someone who has set his aim to destroy the Conservative Party and hand a big majority, permanent majority potentially if they gerrymander the electoral system, to a party (Labour) led by a man who said all immigration legislation was racist, took the knee whilst BLM protesters were attacking police officers rather than backing our police, who has has said that all immigration legislation is racist, this is what a vote for Reform would do.”