A new survey on Thursday confirmed a 32-point lead of Foreign Secretary Liz Truss over former Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the Conservative Party leadership race, but also showed a strong preference among Tory members for outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The YouGov survey for ‘Sky News' suggests 66 per cent of members are in favour of voting for Truss and 34 per cent back the British Indian ex-minister, once those Tory members who do not know or will not vote are excluded.
The survey also shows a majority in favour of ousted leader Boris Johnson, with 55 per cent saying that Tory MPs were wrong to effectively force him to resign and 40 per cent saying they were right.
“The poll makes clear that the incumbent Prime Minister is still held in high affection among Tory members and any successor could be unfavourably compared to him by Tory members,” Sky News said in its poll analysis.
If Johnson was still in the contest alongside Sunak and Truss, 46 per cent say they would vote for the incumbent and only 24 per cent for Truss and 23 per cent for Sunak.
Similarly, 44 per cent say that Johnson would make the best Prime Minister, 24 per cent favouring Truss and 23 per cent for Sunak.
Almost double the number of Tory members feel Johnson is the one who could beat Opposition Labour Leader Keir Starmer in a general election.
The latest survey, covering 1,089 Conservative Party members who hold a vote in the leadership election, was conducted between August 12 and 17.
It comes on the back of a separate Conservative Home survey on Wednesday, which also gave Truss a 32-point lead in the race.
The YouGov survey shows the contest has tightened only very slightly since its last similar poll of members over two weeks ago, when Truss had a 38-point lead, indicating that the debates and hustings are not injecting much-needed momentum for the Sunak camp.