VOTERS have little confidence Rishi Sunak can take care of sleaze in British politics, a new poll reveals.
In the week the Prime Minister hit 100 days in office, sacked Nadhim Zahawi and faced a growing crisis over Dominic Raab, a new poll* by People Polling for GB News, found only 1% of voters are “completely confident” in Mr Sunak’s ability to eradicate sleaze.
Six per cent said they were “confident” he could, but 55% were “not confident at all”.
Among Conservative voters, only three per cent were “completely confident” that Sunak could take care of sleaze, and 82% of Labour voters said they were “not confident at all”.
Commenting, politics expert Matt Goodwin said: “Amid the fallout from Nadhim Zahawi’s resignation and ongoing stories about sleaze and bad behaviour around the Conservative Party we find that very few voters are confident Rishi Sunak can clean up politics and remove sleaze. On the contrary, more than half the electorate say they are ‘not confident at all’ he will be able to take care of sleaze”.
Meanwhile the poll indicated the Conservatives remain well behind Labour in terms of voting intentions.
This poll sees Labour on 46% of the national vote (-4 on last week), the Conservative Party at 22% (+1), the Liberal Democrats on 9% (+1), the Greens on 7% (+2) and Reform on 7% (no change). This means the gap between Labour and the Conservatives is now 24 points and is well adrift of the opposition Labour Party.
Professor Goodwin added: “The Conservative Party’s share of the national vote remains as flat as a pancake, at a historic low level of support. There is little evidence Rishi Sunak, whose own ratings were also down last week, is turning the boat around. The party is still headed for a heavy wipeout at the general election unless things change and, before then, a bruising set of local elections in the Spring.”
But voters don’t appear keen on the idea of a comeback for Boris Johnson. Earlier this week some reports claimed the former PM could be a shock contender to become the Chairman of the Tory party. Jacob Rees-Mogg was among those to tell GB News how Mr Johnson had the required skills to do the job.
But when asked whether they support Mr Johnson returning to the cabinet, 46% said they “strongly opposed” the idea and 10% “opposed” it. Only 21% support Johnson returning to the cabinet. Among Conservative voters, 47% said they would support Johnson returning, while 30% would oppose his return, whereas 80% of Labour voters oppose Johnson returning.
Professor Goodwin said: “Amid growing speculation about Boris Johnson’s potential return to frontline politics we find little public appetite for his return to frontline politics. Only one in five voters would like to see his return while more than half the country is clearly opposed to this idea, with most of them being strongly opposed to Johnson’s return. Based on these numbers, the possibility of a successful comeback appears slim to say the least.”
