Tory rivals failing to win voters over

British voters don’t think either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak would make a better PM than Boris Johnson against Sir Keir Starmer.

British voters don’t think either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak would be a better prime minister than Boris Johnson. Picture: AFP.

Voters do not think that either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak would make a better prime minister than Boris Johnson up against Sir Keir Starmer, polling for The Times suggests today.

The YouGov poll finds that in a head to head run-off against the Labour leader, Johnson would win the support of 28 per cent of the electorate.

In the same head-to-head Truss, the frontrunner in the Tory leadership race, would not increase the Conservatives’ support, also polling at 28 per cent. Sunak did marginally worse at 27 per cent.

Among critical swing voters who backed the Tories in 2019, the differential is even wider. Of those, 62 per cent still support Johnson against Starmer, with 59 per cent for Truss and 55 per cent for Sunak.

For Tory members who have received their ballot papers, the poll suggests that Truss, the foreign secretary, is more popular among the backers of the party at the last election than Sunak.

Asked who would make the better prime minister between the foreign secretary and former chancellor of the exchequer, 41 per cent of Tory 2019 voters said Truss and 26 per cent Sunak. Yet the poll shows that most voters have yet to form a strong impression of either candidate.

Against Starmer both candidates do better than Johnson in eroding the Labour leader’s favourability ratings. However, those voters simply move from supporting Starmer into saying that they are undecided.

The polling also finds that the rows between the two frontrunners on economic policy and the cost of living have done little to endear the Tories to voters. Four per cent of voters think that the contest has portrayed the Tories in a good light compared with 62 per cent who say that it has cast the party in a bad light.

There is still widespread support for the decision of Tory MPs to resign and force Johnson out. Just over 60 per cent of all voters believe that it was the right thing to do compared with 24 per cent who believe it was wrong. A recent poll of Tory members for The Times found that 53 per cent believed it was wrong and 41 per cent believed it was right.

The poll also contrasts views of the public on climate change with those of Tory members. Fifty three per cent of the public say the government should continue with existing net-zero policies compared with 27 per cent who think they should be delayed. In contrast 60 per cent of Tory members believe that the target of going net zero by 2050 should be pushed back compared with 36 per cent who think it should remain.

The poll suggests Labour stills retain a four-point lead on 37 per cent with the Conservatives on 33 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 11 per cent.

The Times