Majority of Conservative Members Say Ousting Boris Johnson Was Wrong: Poll

The majority of Conservative party members believe that it was a mistake for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to have been forced into resigning.

Begging the question ‘what was the point?’, a poll has found that 53 per cent of Conservative party members believe that it was wrong for ministers to effectively force Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign, compared to 41 per cent who backed the ousting.

A plurality of the membership — which will now be empowered to select the next leader of the party and therefore the next Prime Minister due to the Tory’s advantage in the House of Commons — said that they would still vote for Mr Johnson over the two candidates selected last month by Conservative MPs, former Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

The YouGov poll, commissioned by The Times of London, found that 40 per cent would support Johnson were he allowed on the ballot, compared to 28 per cent for Truss and just 23 per cent for Sunak.

Though thousands of members have signed a petition demanding the party allow Johnson to stand, the party does not appear willing to let the PM fight to maintain his position.

The poll found that out of the two candidates, Liz Truss has built a significant lead over Sunak, besting the former Chancellor, who played the role of Brutus in taking down Boris, by a margin of 60 per cent to 26, a 34 point advantage as time dwindles for Sunak to make his case to the members.

Liz Truss’ decision to stay on as foreign secretary rather than jump ship from Johnson’s cabinet appears to have been the right political move according to the survey of 1,043 Tory party members, with 51 per cent saying that it was wrong for Sunak to resign from government, compared to 40 per cent who found the move justifiable.

While the seemingly endless chaos and infighting within the Conservative party would have traditionally benefitted the left-wing Labour Party, the opposition has seen its once commanding lead in Westminster voting intention all but evaporate.

A separate survey conducted by YouGov of all voters found that the previous seven-point lead for Labour has now fallen to just one point, with the Conservatives receiving 34 per cent backing from the public, up two points since July 21-22. During the same time frame, Labour’s support fell by four points, now sitting at 35 per cent. The Liberal Democrats have remained somewhat steady, sitting at 13 per cent, an increase of one per cent.

The failure of Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer to capitalise on the infighting within the Tories comes amid continued inflight within his own party. Indeed, Starmer has failed to reign in his own MPs on the issue of public worker strikes, with shadow transport secretary Sam Terry being fired by Starmer for joining a railway picket line against his orders.

This week Starmer said this week that Labour must refrain from becoming the “party of protest”and that to succeed at the ballot box, it must focus on handing “power to working people”.

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