As speculation over the Conservative leadership continues, YouGov looks at attitudes to Theresa May and her potential successors
1) No potential successor to Theresa May has the confidence of the British public
Of the seven senior Conservative figures we asked about, Boris Johnson is the most likely to be seen as a good potential leader. However, this only amounts to a vote of 26%, and Boris is at the same time the figure most likely to be seen as a poor potential leader, at 57%.
Penny Mordaunt has the highest net score at -11, but is also the most unknown figure with 66% saying they don’t know enough about her to form an opinion.
Among those that the most people have actually heard of, Sajid Javid comes away with the highest net score at -12 (18% think he would make a good leader, 30% a bad one).
2) Attitudes towards Theresa May have improved since the beginning of the month
The most notable difference is the change in perceptions of whether or not Theresa May is “decisive”. The proportion of Britons who believe that she is has risen from 28% at the beginning of the month to 37% today. At the same time, the proportion of those who think she is indecisive has fallen from 57% to 47%.
This improvement on this measure is non-partisan, and is present among Conservative, Labour, Remain and Leave voters alike.
3) Few Brits believe any other Conservative leader would get a better Brexit deal
While previous YouGov research shows that Brits think Brexit is going badly, only 26% believe that any other Conservative leader would be likely to get a better Brexit deal. By contrast, 48% believe any other Tory leader would have been unlikely to do better than Theresa May.
The most confident that someone else could get a better Brexit deal are those who think that Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees Mogg would make a good Conservative party leader, at 47% in both groups.
Photo: Getty
