Poll suggests Nigel Farage top pick to succeed Rishi Sunak as Tory leader
A poll has suggested that Reform UK’s Nigel Farage is the most popular option to succeed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservatives if Labour win the General Election.
The poll by Redfield and Wilton, conducted for The Independent, surveyed 2,000 adults on Wednesday and Thursday and showed 19% of people think Mr Farage should take over from Mr Sunak, with 22% of 2019 Conservative voters surveyed agreeing.
The poll offered six other names – Penny Mordaunt (15%), James Cleverly (6%), Kemi Badenoch (5%), Suella Braverman (4%), Priti Patel (2%) and Robert Jenrick (1%).
Worrying polls
The largest proportion (48%) of those surveyed said they did not know who should replace Mr Sunak as leader of the Conservatives.
To add to the worrying polls for the Tories, 37% of people surveyed said the Reform UK party should replace the Conservatives as the major opposition to Labour, with 30% disagreeing.
The poll also found that 45% of all voters believe Labour will win the next two elections with just 19% disagreeing.
But the poll said 49% of those surveyed believe the main reason for a Labour victory in the General Election would be because of “Tory failures”.
The poll found 18% of people said Labour policies would lead the party to victory, while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership got 14% of the vote.
‘Completely wrong’
The result comes after Ms Mordaunt branded the Prime Minister’s decision to leave the D-Day 80th anniversary events early as “completely wrong” during a BBC debate on Friday.
Ms Mordaunt, a Navy reservist, said it was right that Mr Sunak apologised not only to veterans but to the public, although she added the issue should not become “a political football”.
During the seven-way debate, the Commons Leader said: “What happened was completely wrong, and the Prime Minister has rightly apologised for that, apologised to veterans but also to all of us, because he was representing all of us.”
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This pictorial nightmare continues to worsen, grotesque does not describe the Tory Mount Rushmore in prospect…
Farage to be Tory leader if Labour win the election? I believe Farage will be the Tory leader before the election with their far right department Reform UK being stood down despite the fact that the ballot papers have gone to print. This is the only way the Tories can recover. Go far right and remove the splitting of their vote. This is how Reform replace the Tories whilst retaining their familiar head office name ‘Conservative’.
Will there be a Consevative party for Farige to take over after this election especially if tactical voting is embraced?
Interesting that Farage showed comparatively badly in the debate. In the past, he has usually faced sympathetic interviewers one-on-one, who have let him spout his bilge without being challenged or closely questioned. But in a panel of political heavyweights, he was far less impressive. More so than Penny Mordaunt, of course, but her performance was poor. Shrill, ill-mannered and loud, getting louder as if volume compensates for making sense.
But Farage as Tory leader? That seems unlikely. More likely is the collapse of the Tories and the emergence of a new right-wing grouping in which he will play his part.
Dear Nigel, if your UKIP party described the problem and your Brexit Party made sure the solution happened, why do we need Reform UK? Yours baffled, Everyone else.
Why is the media giving so much coverage to this idiot?
Yes and why are so many reading the articles and then commentating making it seem the articles are popular.
So is that ‘Vote Reform, get Tory or Vote Tory, get Reform’? Whichever it is, it stinks😱
Farage is hell bent on making this an election about immigration – but he got a very poor reception from the audience at lat night’s debate, who applauded those who called for an end to the bigotry. He’ll appeal to the right wing of the Tory party but the rest of the population will avoid him like the plague. Best to ignore him.
This has GOT to be a joke! Has this charlatan sucked in that many people? Was nothing learned from the ‘Brexit’ fiasco? What short attention spans people must have!