Liz Truss has taken a big lead among Conservative Party members who decide who will become the next Prime Minister, a fresh poll has suggested. The former Leeds schoolgirl has built a 24-point lead over her rival Rishi Sunak in the first poll from YouGov since the final pairing was revealed.
When it comes to headline voting intention, Ms Truss scored 62%, with Mr Sunak at just 38%, according to the YouGov poll. The pair are the last ones standing in the leadership contest, after Penny Mordaunt was eliminated from the race yesterday (July 20).
Whoever comes out on top will replace Boris Johnson as Tory leader - and eventually become PM - after he announced his intention to step down from the position on July 7. The final decision will be voted on by Tory members of more than three months, with the result set to be announced on September 5.
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Earlier in the week, YouGov's data predicted that Ms Truss would beat Mr Sunak in a then-hypothetical vote. Now with the vote becoming a reality, the latest YouGov poll confirms that prediction.
At the moment, 31% of the Conservative membership have said that they intend to vote for Mr Sunak, while 49% expressed an intention to vote for Ms Truss. A further 15% currently don’t know how they will vote, while 6% currently told YouGov they will abstain. This gives the Foreign Secretary a 24-point lead over the former Chancellor.
Further polls from YouGov reveal that while 50% of the membership believe Mr Sunak would make a good leader, 42% think he would be bad at the job, including 23% who think he would make a “very poor” leader. For Ms Truss, almost two-thirds (62%) believe that she would make a good party leader, versus 31% who think she wouldn't.
Perhaps as a result of the recent 'Partygate' scandals, four in 10 Tory members stated that they did not think Mr Sunak could be trusted, in comparison to just 18% saying the same about Ms Truss.
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