Johnson only Tory who can outperform Sunak, poll finds

BORIS JOHNSON is the only Tory who would outperform Rishi Sunak against Sir Keir Starmer if the party changed leader, a new poll has suggested.

The poll, commissioned by Lady Mcalpine, a long-standing party supporter, found that the former prime minister is the most popular candidate to succeed Mr Sunak as Tory leader.

He beat 10 other Tories, including Lord Cameron and Kemi Badenoch, to become the favourite to replace Mr Sunak should the party change leader.

More than half of those who voted Tory in the 2019 election and have decided to vote for a different party this time, but haven’t decided which, said they would vote for the Conservative Party if it were led by Mr Johnson.

Lady Mcalpine commissioned Whitestone Insight to survey 13,534 British adults online between Jan 23 and Feb 7. The survey asked whom each respondent would rather vote for between Sir Keir and a range of Conservative politicians. It found that 28 per cent of people would vote for Mr Johnson against Sir Keir Starmer, compared to 25 per cent who would vote for Mr Sunak.

Among the “Lost Conservatives”, who said they will not vote Tory at the next election but do not know who to vote for, 52 per cent said they would vote for Mr Johnson over Sir Keir.

This is compared with 39 per cent saying they would vote for Mr Sunak over the Labour leader.

Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, and Penny Mordaunt, the Commons Leader, received 23 per cent versus Sir Keir, with Priti Patel polling at 22 per cent and Ms Badenoch 19 per cent. Mr Johnson topped the poll for potential successors to Mr Sunak, with Ms Mordaunt coming second and Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, third.

More than four in 10 2019 Conservatives said they could be persuaded to vote for the Tories again if Mr Sunak were not leader.