Race for PM: Penny Mordaunt charges ahead in snap poll of Tory members

13 July 2022, 15:16 | Updated: 20 October 2022, 13:50

A new poll of Conservative party members has placed Penny Mordaunt as the clear favourite for next the Prime Minister.

A snap poll by YouGov has revealed Ms Mordaunt has taken the lead in the Tory leadership race after the previous preferred choice among Conservatives Ben Wallace decided not to stand.

The new survey of 879 Conservative members placed the naval reservist on 27 per cent, almost two times ahead of second place Kemi Badenoch who is currently sitting with 15 per cent.

The data revealed Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are neck and neck both drawing in 13 per cent.

Tom Tugendhat had the support of 8 per cent, Suella Braverman was on 5 per cent, Jeremy Hunt got the backing of 4 per cent, while just 1 per cent voted in favour of Nadhim Zahawi.

Ms Mordaunt also came out on top against all candidates when they were theoretically pitched head to head, as will happen at the final members' vote.

In the head to heads, Ms Mordaunt's closest competitor is Liz Truss, but poll reveal she would still beat the Foreign Secretary by 55 per cent to 37 per cent.

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She likewise firmly sees off Kemi Badenoch by 59% to 30%, and Rishi Sunak by 67% to 28%.

Mr Sunak currently appears to have the most support among Tory MPs at the nomination stage but he performs poorly in the head-to-heads.

The only candidate he definitely seems to beat at this stage is Jeremy Hunt, by 57 per cent to 25 per cent and is tied with both Suella Braverman and Nadhim Zahawi.

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The former Chancellor of the Exchequer loses to Kemi Badenoch, Tom Tugendhat and Liz Truss as well as Penny Mordaunt – the latter two by very wide margins.

Additional head-to-head matchups show Liz Truss convincingly beating both Tom Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch.

In a Tugendhat vs Badenoch face-off, there is an effective tie, with the former on 42% and the latter on 44%.

On Wednesday Penny Mordaunt told Conservative MPs fearful of losing their seats under Boris Johnson that she is the candidate "Labour fear the most".

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The former defence secretary launched her pitch to be the next prime minister promising to return to traditional Conservative values of "low tax, small state and personal responsibility".

Ms Mordaunt said her key economic policy would be that debt as a percentage of GDP, a measure of national income, would fall "over time".

She has pledged a 50% cut in VAT on fuel to help ease the cost-of-living crisis but has not gone as far as others in the race to offer tax cuts.

And the naval reservist stood by the Conservative manifesto commitment to meet the Nato target for defence spending of 2% of GDP and increase it by 0.5% above inflation every year.

At her launch event at Westminster's Cinnamon Club, Ms Mordaunt declined to describe Mr Johnson as a good Prime Minister, instead thanking him for delivering Brexit.

But she insisted she is "very different" from her would-be predecessor but indicated she would not call an early general election to win her own mandate if she entered No 10.

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She argued that having stood on the same platform as Mr Johnson and other Tories in the 2019 election "we have a mandate and a big majority".

"I think the British people want us to deliver on that now," she said.

But part of the reason Tory MPs eventually ejected Mr Johnson after a series of damaging scandals is that they feared retaining their seats at the next general election.

"I'm the candidate that Labour fear the most - and they're right to," she told Conservatives and reporters closely crammed into the sweltering room.

The long-term Brexit backer said the Government supply side reforms would yield a "Brexit dividend" on investment, infrastructure and innovation.