A recent poll found that the majority of Conservatives now believe Boris Johnson should resign, but there is no obvious candidate to take his place.
More bad news for the Prime Minister: For the first time throughout his tenure as leader, Tory voters are now more inclined to want him to leave No. 10 than to keep it.
Since Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid abruptly resigned, dissident MPs are attempting to strike the decisive blow against Mr. Johnson, who is currently fighting for his political life.
After the bombshell resignations and a slew of other, more minor resignations, the PM is in for a difficult day. At noon, he must run the gauntlet of PMQs before facing a three-hour grilling from the influential Liaison Committee, which will include some of his savagest detractors.
Additionally, it appears that popular support for him is waning, especially among Conservative voters who three years ago propelled him into Downing Street on a Brexit wave.
According to a YouGov survey of 3,000 people conducted yesterday night, the majority of 2019 Conservative voters (54 percent) now also favor the prime minister’s resignation. Additionally, 69% of voters, or more than two out of three, agree that he should resign.
Far fewer Britons anticipate Johnson leaving Number 10 voluntarily, despite the public’s desire to have the prime minister removed from his residence.
Only one in five (21%) people, up from 7% at the beginning of June, think he will step down. Almost two thirds (68%) believe he will make an effort to stay.
The majority of Britons (56%) say that Rishi Sunak was correct to quit as chancellor, with Conservative voters leaning more toward this opinion (47 percent to 24 percent).
For the past seven months, Labour has had a slight but steady advantage over the Conservatives in the polls.
The margin of victory has fluctuated, ranging from a meager three points on average to as many as eleven.
Early in December 2021, as reports of Downing Street parties during Covid-19 lockdowns first surfaced, Sir Keir Starmer’s party began to gain ground in the polls.
Before this, Labour had behind the Government for the most of the preceding few years.
Based on a seven-day rolling average of all nationally released polls, Labour received 39% of the vote on July 5, compared to the Conservatives’ 33%, the Liberal Democrats’ 13%, and the Greens’ 6%.
The Conservatives averaged 41% of the vote, Labour had 33%, the Lib Dems had 9%, and the Greens had 5%.
Opinion surveys are neither predictions or forecasts; rather, they are snapshots of the current state of the public mind.
There is still plenty of time for the national statistics to change because the next general election won’t take place until January 23, 2025, which is more than two years away.
However, polls both shape and reflect the nation’s prevailing mood, which has an impact on politicians’ and party members’ morale.
When considering Boris Johnson’s popularity ratings, the news is equally bad for the Conservatives.
Since January, the Prime Minister’s net favorability rating—the difference between the percentage of those who say they like him and those who don’t—has been at or close to an all-time low.
According to statistics gathered by the polling company YouGov, it currently stands at minus 51 points.
With the exception of a few weeks in spring 2020 at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Boris Johnson has had low favorability ratings for practically the entirety of his time as premier.
The score has barely fallen below – 40 in recent months, though.