Truss maintains the lead in the UK PM contest, but Britons still like Boris
A fresh poll released on Thursday established that Foreign Secretary Liz Truss leads former Chancellor Rishi Sunak by 32 points in the battle for the leadership of the Conservative Party, but it also revealed that many Tory members still like outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
After excluding the Tory members who are unsure or won’t vote, the YouGov poll conducted for “Sky News” finds that 66% of members support Truss and 34% support the former minister who is British Indian.
A majority of respondents to the poll support former leader Boris Johnson, with 55% believing that Tory MPs erred in forcing him to leave and 40% believing that they were correct.
According to Sky News’ poll interpretation, “the poll makes clear that the incumbent Prime Minister is still regarded in high regard among Tory members and any successor may be contrasted to him unfavourably by Tory members.”
46% of respondents said they would support Johnson if he were still running alongside Sunak and Truss, compared to 24% and 23% for the other candidates.
Likewise, 44% believe Johnson would make the finest prime minister, followed by 24% for Truss and 23% for Sunak.
Nearly twice as many Tory members believe Johnson has a good chance of defeating Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labour party, in a general election.
The most recent poll, which included 1,089 Conservative Party members eligible to vote in the leadership race, was conducted from August 12 to August 17.
It follows a different Conservative Home poll conducted on Wednesday that also gave Truss a 32-point lead in the contest.
The YouGov poll reveals that the race has only very slightly tightened since its last similar poll of members more than two weeks ago, when Truss had a 38-point lead. This finding suggests that the debates and hustings are not giving the Sunak camp the much-needed boost.