Members now tend to think the prime minister does not have what it takes to win the next general election
Following from our recent snap national poll showing that most 2019 Conservative voters want Boris Johnson to resign, a new snap YouGov poll of Conservative party members shows that the majority (59%) want the prime minister to go. Only a third (36%) want to see Boris Johnson continue as prime minister.
Most Tory members (56%) believe Johnson is performing badly as prime minister. This is up from 38% at the turn of the year, when the PM was embroiled in ‘partygate’.
Indeed, following a string of scandals, the latest of which has seen Johnson claiming not to have been told an MP he was promoting had been accused of sexual misconduct, before rowing back on that claim, a majority of Tory members say that the prime minister cannot be trusted to tell the truth (57%). This is up from 39% in our previous poll of party members at the start of the year.
Crucially, the membership no longer has confidence that Johnson has what it takes to win the next general election. Approaching half (46%) say that he does not have what it takes to triumph at the ballot box, compared to 40% who still have confidence. At the beginning of the year 61% of members had still seen the prime minister as an election-winning machine.
Conservative voters marginally think the PM has what it takes to run the country (by 48% to 43%), and they do still believe he has a clear vision for the nation (by 52% to 37%).
