According to a recent poll, Boris Johnson appears to have the potential to win back voters who drifted away during Rishi Sunak’s tenure and remains the favored candidate to replace him as Prime Minister.
The survey, conducted among 13,534 Conservative voters, revealed that the former prime minister maintains significant popularity, outstripping ten other prominent Tories, including Lord Cameron, Suella Braverman, and Kemi Badenoch.
Commissioned by longtime party supporter Lady McAlpine, the study indicates that just over half of former Conservative voters from the 2019 election, who now lean towards other parties, would be inclined to vote for Mr. Johnson again.
In contrast, only 39 percent of those surveyed expressed a preference for Mr. Sunak over Labour leader Keir Starmer.
This latest poll emerges in the wake of recent internal discord within the Tory party, sparked by revelations of secretive polling, notably the “Labour landslide” poll, which warned of potential electoral disaster unless Mr. Sunak stepped down as leader.
The findings come at the end of a challenging week for the Prime Minister, marked by twin by-election losses for the Conservatives and the nation’s entry into a technical recession.
On Friday, February 16, Labour secured victories in Wellingborough and Kingswood, marking the second-largest swing from Tory to Labour in any by-election since World War II.
The defeat has prompted calls from within the party for a strategic shift, urging the Prime Minister to embrace traditional Conservative principles such as reduced taxation, stricter immigration policies, and a reconsideration of net-zero targets.
The survey also delved into the popularity of other Conservative figures, including Suella Braverman, the former Home Secretary, and Penny Mordaunt, the Leader of the Commons. Both garnered 23 percent support compared to Sir Keir, while Priti Patel polled at 22 percent and Ms. Badenoch at 19 percent.
Furthermore, the poll revealed that 45 percent of those who voted Conservative in 2019 indicated they might consider voting for the party again if Mr. Sunak were not the leader.
Additionally, a significant eighty percent of former Conservative voters agreed that the party would stand a better chance of success with a leader who adheres to “traditional Conservative values.”
However, Lord Hayward expressed skepticism regarding the poll suggesting Boris Johnson as the preferred candidate for Prime Minister.
“You don’t only judge a party leader on the basis of what leader you want, but you also need to know how ‘anti’ people are. There is no doubt Boris engenders support amongst people – but he also engenders an enormous amount of opposition”.
Lord Hayward
He added: “The plotting right may be disappointed by the results, because they might have wanted more people to come out ahead of Rishi Sunak. The only person who’s come out ahead of Sunak is someone who’s not an MP”.
Boris Johnson: The Right Person To Give Tories Victory
According to the poll results, Labour currently holds a 22-point lead over the Tories, which stand at 20 percent, with Reform at 13 percent and the Liberal Democrats at 10 percent.
Whitestone Insight, the organization behind the poll, stated that “replacing Rishi Sunak” could potentially determine “the difference between wipeout, noble defeat, or possibly even somehow clinging on to power.”
Lady McAlpine expressed her belief that if Boris Johnson headed a “new, squeaky-clean Conservative Party,” the Tories might prevail.
She said, “If we have the brains, they’re not evident and that’s because the personality is not there, the charisma is not there. To be a leader, you have to have enormous charisma to be a good leader.”
Mr. Johnson departed from Parliament last year after being found to have deliberately misled MPs regarding his involvement in the partygate controversy.
The former prime minister faced resignation due to his handling of the scandal and was subsequently compelled to step down following a scathing parliamentary inquiry into his behavior.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has however maintained an optimistic outlook despite the challenging by-election outcomes.
While acknowledging the results as “particularly challenging,” he has affirmed that “our plan is working” and has reassured the public that they can “have peace of mind that there is a better future for them and their families.”
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