Twelve months into the job, Badenoch has convinced only 12% of Britons that she’s a prime minister in waiting
This Sunday marks a year since Kemi Badenoch became Conservative leader, but there’s already media speculation that it will be her only anniversary in post. For their part, half of Tory party members feel Badenoch should stand down before the next general election.
But while knives in Westminster may be being sharpened after months of languishing in voting intention polls, how do the British public, especially Conservative voters, feel about Badenoch’s leadership so far?
Just 23% of Britons consider Badenoch to have done a good job as Tory leader so far, relative to 42% who feel she’s done a bad job. While not exactly positive, this is a recovery from her position in May, when just 16% of Britons felt Badenoch was doing well in the role and 51% felt she was doing poorly.
Among Conservative voters themselves, a majority (54%) believe Badenoch has done a good job as party leader, up 12 points since May. Nonetheless, 24% do not think her first year as party leader has been successful.
Badenoch has convinced fewer Britons still that she’s Downing Street material, with just 12% currently seeing her as a prime minister in waiting, compared to 62% who can't see her on the steps of Number 10.
Even among Conservative voters, just 25% feel Badenoch looks ready for office, while a majority (53%) do not. This latter assessment is also held by two thirds or more of Reform UK (67%), Labour (71%) and Lib Dem (73%) voters.
Of course, this is not a perfect guide to whether or not an opposition leader succeeds. After a year as Labour leader, just 22% of Britons felt Keir Starmer looked like a prime minister in waiting, with this falling to a low of 13% just two months later.
However, Conservative voters are also unconvinced about replacing Badenoch as party leader, with just 31% feeling she should not lead the party into the next general election, although fewer than half (41%) actively think she should remain in place.
Is Kemi Badenoch responsible for the current state of the Conservatives?
Of course, a big part of the question of whether the Tories should replace Badenoch is whether somebody else would be doing better.
Around three quarters of Britons (77%) see the Conservatives as being in a weak state at the moment, including 71% of Conservative voters. Among these people, there is a minority who believe the Conservatives are in a worse state than they would be under an alternative leader. But this amounts to just 19% of such Britons and 20% of such Conservative voters.
Instead, 67% of Britons and 61% of Conservative voters who feel the party is in a weak state believe the Tories would be in this position regardless of who was party leader.
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Photo: Getty
