Johnson’s unpopularity among Tories soars as he comes eighth from bottom in satisfaction survey

Only six Cabinet members have satisfaction scores above 50

Levelling up

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s popularity among the Conservative Party has plummeted compared with what it was immediately after the general election.

In fact, right after the general election, Conservative Home’s survey of panel members showed 18 Cabinet members had a satisfaction rating above 50.

Now only six Cabinet members have an above 50 satisfaction rating among party members.

In the first post-election survey published on 29 December 2019 Boris Johnson scored a huge 92.5 in satisfaction ratings and was firmly at the top of the table.

Now, over eight months later, he has dropped right down to 24.6 and is in the bottom eight Cabinet members.

In terms of the other Cabinet members, Rishi Sunak is at the top with a rating of 82.5.

Joining him with ratings above 50 are Michael Gove (69.2), Dominic Raab (66.8), Liz Truss (61.7), Steve Barclay (51.9) and Jacob Rees-Mogg (50.2).

Three Cabinet members have got negative scores. Robert Jenrick remains in negative with -9.4 and Amanda Milling has now joined him with -3.1.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has got a score of -54, although Theresa May still beat him last April with -74.

Explaining the scores, Paul Goodman, writing for Conservative Home said: “The members’ panel has good record as a guide to activist voting in leadership elections, so we’ve no doubt that this month’s survey is picking up unease about the Government’s competence, consistency and sense of direction.”

Boris Johnson’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis clearly has a large part to play in his loss of popularity, with less than 50 per cent of party members backing how he dealt with it.

Lucy Skoulding is a freelance reporter at Left Foot Forward. Follow her on Twitter.

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