Poll suggests Clarke would not beat Labour
Conservative leadership hopeful, Kenneth Clarke, would not perform better at the next general election than outgoing leader Michael Howard did on May 5th, according to a new poll.
The poll for the Independent on Sunday found that only a quarter of voters said they would back Mr Clarke or other Tory political heavyweights at the next election.
This compared to 44 per cent of respondents who said they would side with a Labour party led by chancellor Gordon Brown, the current favourite to succeed Tony Blair when he steps down.
The Blair administration is five points ahead of the Tories at present on 37 per cent, a difference that would double if Mr Brown were to lead it and Mr Clarke the Tories, according to the survey.
According to the CommunicateResearch poll of 1,012 adults, 65-year old Mr Clarke was runner up to Mr Brown in every age group, adrift a gaping 44 percentage points among 18-24s, though just one point behind in the 55-64 age group.
At the last election, the Tories led by Michael Howard won 32 per cent of the popular vote compared to Labour’s 35 per cent.
Of those asked, nine per cent of Tory voters said they may cross over to Labour should Mr Clarke assume power. On the other side of the coin, only six per cent of Labour supporters said they would back the Tories.
At present, David Davis, shadow home secretary, is the bookies’ favourite to land the top Tory job, with education spokesman David Cameron, shadow foreign secretary Liam Fox, and Sir Malcolm Rifkind, also in contention.
But yesterday’s YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph showed Mr Clarke the most popular of the candidates among voters.
He had the support of 42 per cent of those interviewed, compared with 16 per cent for Mr Davis, nine per cent for Mr Fox, and six per cent for Mr Cameron and Sir Malcolm.
On September 27th, the Tory party’s 300,000 grassroot members and senior Tories vote on rule changes proposed by Mr Howard for the leadership contest.
Mr Howard wants the final stamp of approval on who leads the party to be returned to Conservative MPs.
