Unlike his competitors, Sunak is the only candidate the public don’t tend to think would do a bad job
Britons think Rishi Sunak is more likely to do a good job as prime minister than leadership rivals Boris Johnson and Penny Mordaunt.
As the UK waits to find out who the country’s next leader will be, 43% of the public say Sunak would do a good job – significantly more than others hotly tipped for the role. He is also the only candidate for whom the number of people who think he will be good is not outweighed by the number who think he will be bad (40%).
Second to the former chancellor is Johnson, with around a third of Britons (34%) saying he would do a good job if he made a return to office, but with most expecting he would do a bad job (56%).
Third-placed Mordaunt is seen as likely to do well by 26% and poorly by 35%. The former defence secretary is more of an unknown quantity among the public, however, with 39% unsure how well she would do, compared to 17% for Sunak and only 9% for Johnson.
However, when each candidate was pitched head to head against Keir Starmer, Britons say they’d rather have the Labour leader as prime minister than any of the Tory trio.
Almost half of Britons (48%) would prefer the Labour leader to be prime minister than for Boris Johnson to have a second stab at the job. Only a third (35%) would rather see a Johnson resurrection than a Starmer premiership.
Starmer is the preferred prime minister over Rishi Sunak by 43% to 34%, and Mordaunt by 43% to 28%.
Photo: Getty
