The Conservatives are on course to lose 800 council seats at Thursday’s local elections, a Tory polling guru has predicted.

In a blow for Rishi Sunak, Lord Robert Hayward told HuffPost UK he expected both Labour and the Lib Dems to make major gains.

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Keir Starmer’s party will see their number of councillors increase by 550, while Ed Davey’s will gain 250.

But it is unclear whether the scale of Labour’s success will be enough to indicate the party is on course for power at the general election.

Hayward said it could actually be Lib Dem leader Davey who ends up the happiest of the three main party leaders.

“As the third party in local government the Lib Dems will probably increase their share of council seats by more than Labour,” Hayward told HuffPost UK.