Jeremy Hunt has become the latest Cabinet minister appearing to concede that the Conservatives are heading for defeat at the General Election.
The Chancellor warned that voting for Reform UK would hand Labour “an even bigger majority”.
It comes after Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said the Tories are fighting to prevent Sir Keir Starmer winning a “supermajority”.
The Conservative strategy, backed by a social media advertising campaign, is aimed at persuading Tory backers tempted by Nigel Farage’s party not to risk giving Labour a majority which could eclipse even the 1997 landslide under Tony Blair.
Mr Hunt told Politico’s Power Play podcast: “All that a vote for Reform does is give Labour an even bigger majority.
“And that is a polar opposite of what most Reform voters want. So it doesn’t solve any problem to vote Reform.”
Mr Hunt also acknowledged that Britons feel “battered” by the cost-of-living crisis and want to “hold the guys at the top to account”.
He conceded that the Government has failed to deliver its pledge to stop small boats from crossing the English Channel.
He said: “I think that Britain has always prided itself on the essential moderation of our politics, but people need to see problems being solved and there is a lot of frustration that, you know, we haven’t yet been able to stop the boats coming over.”
His admission of voters’ discontent with the Tory record comes after Rishi Sunak acknowledged that people were “frustrated” with him and admitted the Tories “have not got everything right” at his party’s manifesto launch.
But the Prime Minister insisted he had “absolutely not” lost hope of winning the election after Mr Shapps’s intervention.
The Chancellor admitted his own seat is in jeopardy, saying: “It could be a strong Conservative majority or it could be a seat that falls spectacularly to the Lib Dems.”
Polling suggests the new Godalming and Ash seat Mr Hunt is campaigning to represent will be taken by Sir Ed Davey’s Liberal Democrats.