The Conservatives have been told to conduct a two-year campaign, starting with local elections in May.
Party leader Oliver Dowden warned campaigners will face a far tougher battle than the 2019 general election, which ended in a landslide.
Speaking at the party’s spring conference in Blackpool, he said it would be a “seat-for-seat” battle.
Many Tories are expecting losses in the local elections on May 5 after a turbulent period for the party.
Labor hopes to convert national opinion poll results into local gains, though they have downplayed expectations of a dramatic breakthrough.
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The Liberal Democrats are also feeling confident after winning the Westminster by-election in Tory heartland.
The next general election is scheduled for 2024, but there has been speculation that Boris Johnson will enter the country earlier as his government pushes ahead with plans to scrap the Fixed Term Parliaments Act.
But Mr Dowden said the Conservatives would begin “our two-year campaign” in May by launching a target strategy.
And he warned campaigners the next election will be more like 2015, when David Cameron won a 12-seat majority, than 2019, when Boris Johnson trotted home with an 80-seat majority.
“Of course, we face a tough road through local people to the next general election,” he said.
“We will be aiming for a fifth Conservative victory. A feat never before achieved. And the challenge begins this May.”
The prime minister decides when an election is called, not his party leader.
But Oliver Dowden’s choice of words, explicitly voicing a two-year general election campaign, was deliberate.
The working hypothesis at Conservative headquarters is that there will be no snap elections.
And the hope is that by 2024 the worst of the cost-of-living crisis will be over and that “Partygate” will be a distant memory.
His warning that the next election will be more like 2015 than 2019 was a call for party loyalists not to become complacent.
The last election was held on essentially the same political platform across the country – Get Brexit Done.
Now Conservatives must come out with tailored messages to convince those who ‘lend’ their votes to the party that the government has made a tangible difference in their sphere.
Despite the Conservatives having been in power since 2010, Boris Johnson was able to capitalize on a desire for change last time out.
He is now largely the incumbent – weighed down with heavy political baggage and against another Labor leader.
Activists gathered by the sea in Blackpool were told an early poll was not in sight.
Mr Dowden said he would “reopen the list of candidates for the next general election with a big open call for candidates” and urged people with “wide range of life experiences” to introduce themselves.
He said: “Our candidates must reflect the new Conservative party: the party of Darlington and Doncaster as well as Devon and Dorset.”
The party leader confirmed he had appointed a campaign director and “more than a dozen” campaign managers and opened a new headquarters in Leeds.
Council elections will take place in England, Scotland and Wales on May 5th, as well as general elections in Northern Ireland.
In England there will also be mayoral elections in combined authorities and mayoral elections in local authorities.
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