Javid first choice for Tory faithful but Boris is trailing

HOME Secretary Sajid Javid is favourite with the Tory faithful to succeed Theresa May, with Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt in second place – and Boris Johnson well down the field.

These are the findings of a Survation poll for the Mail conducted yesterday after the vote of confidence in Mrs May’s Conservative leadership was announced.

In third place after Mr Javid and Mr Hunt is former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab, according to the survey of Tory councillors. Surprisingly, Mr Johnson, Mrs May’s most prominent critic, trails in seventh place.

By contrast, Environment Secretary Michael Gove, who sabotaged fellow Brexiteer Mr Johnson’s 2016 leadership challenge but has stayed loyal to Mrs May, is one place ahead of Mr Johnson.

The 753 Conservative councillors who took part in the poll were asked to pick from 11 leadership contenders, listing them in order of preference. The more top picks they received, the higher they were ranked. The Survation poll is a key guide to the possible outcome of a Tory leadership contest. MPs whittle candidates down to the final two but the winner is decided by a vote of the party’s 100,000plus members, including its 9,000 councillors.

Nearly six in ten of those who took part in the survey voted in favour of Brexit in the referendum, four in ten to Remain.

In spite of the respondents’ mainly pro-Brexit views, Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd, the outspoken Remainer restored to the Cabinet after losing her Home Office job over the Windrush immigration fiasco earlier this year, pipped both Mr Johnson and Mr Gove.

The number one ranking for Mr Javid comes after a series of reports that he is gearing up for a challenge if Mrs May falls. The Home Secretary, who campaigned for Remain, has since said he supports Brexit.

Mr Johnson’s ranking is at odds with other recent polls of Tory supporters – as opposed to Conservative Party members – which have put him in first place.

Damian Lyons-Lowe, head of Survation, said: ‘It seems Conservative councillors disapprove more strongly of a fellow politician who rocks the party boat to members of the public. They are more sympathetic to Cabinet loyalists like Sajid and Hunt.

‘Boris’s supporters will be dismayed that he is behind both Gove and Rudd in popularity terms in the party.’

Nearly seven in ten Tory councillors said party MPs were wrong to try to oust Mrs May; one in three said they were right to do so.

Tory party anger with MPs who tried to topple Mrs May is reflected in some of the comments posted by councillors who took part in the poll. They included: ‘What a mess, no deal should not even be considered, the economy is the priority’; ‘We should support the PM, stabbing her in the back has undermined her all the way’; ‘Conservative MPs are acting like children’.

But some were critical. One said: ‘We need a leader with real charisma.’ Another observed: ‘She has made a hash of the negotiations.’

Survation interviewed 753 Tory councillors online yesterday.