THE RACE TO REPLACE THERESA MAY
What do the public think of the likely candidates?
BORIS Johnson is who the public would both most and least like to see as the next Prime Minister.
Following the survival of her noconfidence vote with a majority of 83 earlier this month, Theresa May said she would not lead the Conservative Party into the next general election.
In other words, May will lead the country through Brexit before stepping down and handing over the reigns to someone else.
In the days prior to her noconfidence vote, polling group YouGov asked the public to select who they thought would make a good successor if May stood down as Conservative leader and Prime Minister.
Respondents could choose from Boris Johnson, David Davis, Sajid Javid, Amber Rudd, Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and Dominic Raab.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, who had been calling for May to face a vote of no confidence for weeks, was not included in the poll.
At the time it was published, Boris Johnson had the strongest support. More than a fifth (22 per cent) of the public, said he would make a good Prime Minister. While he had the highest proportion of support of the seven candidates included in the poll, he was also the most divisive.
A whopping 57 per cent of people said he would actually made a bad Prime Minister.
Ten per cent weren't sure, while 12 per cent said they didn't know. Some 15 per cent of people said David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, and Sajid Javid, the current Home Secretary, would make a good Prime Minister.
At the bottom of the table was Dominic Raab - another former Brexit Secretary
- with just nine per cent of people believing he would make a good Prime Minister.
Michael Gove was the only other MP alongside Boris Johnson where more than half of the public thought he would make a "bad" Prime Minister (52 per cent). Perhaps alarmingly, the YouGov survey revealed that people felt none of May's potential successors were more likely to make a good prime minister than a bad one. The public was also asked who they thought could do a better or worse job than Theresa May at negotiating Brexit, but not one successor was seen as capable of doing so.
The next general election is scheduled to be held on 5 May 2022.