Kemi Badenoch, widely considered to be the favourite to succeed Rishi Sunak as prime minister, is less popular among the electorate than nearly every other Tory leader contender, new polling suggests.
The survey by Savanta, shared exclusively with i, suggests that there is no one who would significantly boost the party’s fortune compared to Rishi Sunak.
Indeed, despite Tory plotters suggesting he should be replaced before the election, Mr Sunak remains popular among 2019 Tory voters, when compared to his rivals for the top job – beating all of them in a head-to-head. Among all voters, only Penny Mordaunt and Tom Tugendhat beat him.
Ms Mordaunt emerges as the most favoured among all voters to be leader, beating all her rivals in a head-to-head.
The survey of 2,237 UK adults asked who they preferred in head-to-head races between each of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt, Home Secretary James Cleverly, ex-prime minister Boris Johnson, security minister Tom Tugendhat, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch and former home secretary Suella Braverman.
The survey also considered how Reform UK president Nigel Farage would fare against each proposed candidate amid speculation his party could merge with the Conservatives if they are defeated at the next election.
It finds that Ms Badenoch and Ms Braverman are the least favoured candidates. Ms Badenoch comes out worst in head-to-heads with all other candidates among all voters, except Mr Farage and Ms Braverman, and practically ties with Mr Johnson (50.1 per cent of voters preferring Johnson).
Voters’ favourites for Tory leader
Pollsters Savanta crunched the numbers to work out an aggregate of those favoured by the public for the top Tory job
1. Penny Mordaunt
2. James Cleverly
3. Rishi Sunak
4. Boris Johnson
5. Tom Tugendhat
6. Nigel Farage
7.Kemi Badenoch
8. Suella Braverman
Ms Braverman is also the least likely to chosen by the public of all eight candidates.
It comes as Ms Badenoch is embroiled in a public row with the former boss of the Post Office, Henry Staunton, who has claimed he was asked to delay compensation payments in the Horizon scandal until after the election.
Ms Badenoch told the Commons on Monday there was no truth in this claim and accused Mr Staunton of attempting to seek revenge for being sacked.
Chris Hopkins, political research director at Savanta, said the data showed “recent rumblings of replacing the Prime Minister to drive up support among Conservative voters may be wide of the mark”.
“This is not a party that appears to have a ready-made replacement waiting in the wings, or an easy path to avoid an electoral drubbing by the Labour Party,” he continued.
“Penny Mordaunt and her team should be the ones most happy with our findings, which show that she is the most likely to be chosen by the public over her potential leadership rivals.
“Labour voters in particular seem most keen on her, when compared with other senior Conservative figures.”
Among Labour voters, 63 per cent said they preferred Ms Mordaunt to Mr Sunak, while 65 per cent preferred her to Ms Badenoch.
Mr Farage, meanwhile, was only the preferred candidate among all voters when pitted against Ms Braverman.
