A fresh poll has suggested that former chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to lose to Liz Truss in their bid for the Conservative leadership.
The survey, released by YouGov yesterday night, says the foreign secretary is currently leading by 62 per cent to Sunak’s 38 per cent among the party grassroots set to vote between today and 2 September.
This suggests Truss has a 24 point lead over her former Cabinet colleague.
Despite Sunak having backed the Brexit vote, and Truss having campaigned for Remain, the survey showed Truss leading among Tory Brexit supporters and Sunak leading among erstwhile Remainers.
Truss also holds an advantage among party members in terms of her trustworthiness and ability to lead.
The YouGov poll found that exactly half of party members think Sunak would make a good leader, 42 per cent believe he would not – including almost a quarter (23 per cent) who say he would be “very poor” .
Meanwhile 62 per cent say Truss would be a good leader, with just 31 saying she would not be up to the job.
The main public point of division between the two rivals, as it stands, is the question of tax cuts.
Truss has claimed that Sunak’s current plans will set Britain on the road to recession, herself promising to slash taxes by £38 billion.
Education select committee chair Robert Halfon, has since took to the airwaves to defend Sunak’s vision.
He told Sky News this morning that while, “polls come and polls go. I believe that when he makes his case more members will come and support him,” he suggested members: “know he’s not making promises he can’t keep and that’s the important thing.
“If he wanted to be popular he could say everything and anything about tax cuts, but we’ve got to deal with the debt,” he went on.
Sunak himself told LBC Radio last night that, in light of inflation surging to a four-decade high, that his “strong point of view is if the government goes on a huge borrowing spree, that is only going to make that situation worse. And that will mean that the problem will last longer.”
