Most of the public aren’t feeling so hopeful after Rishi Sunak’s coronation as Tory leader, with only four in ten saying that they are pleased he has become Prime Minister.
A snap YouGov poll after the announcement that Sunak had won the Tory leadership race, showed that only four in 10 people are pleased he is the next PM. On the other hand, 41% of those surveyed said that they were disappointed.
Significantly, more than half of those surveyed (56%) said that they wanted a general election now.
Sunak meanwhile told Tory MPs yesterday that there would be no early general election.
The former chancellor became Prime Minister after Penny Mordaunt withdrew from the Tory leadership race, just minutes before the results of the nominations were announced.
It makes a mockery of our democracy that Sunak is going to become PM without saying a single word about how he would govern or setting out his policies during the leadership race, as he avoided media interviews like the plague, and without the rest of the country being able to have a say.
Momentum had been with Sunak after he won the support of over half of the parliamentary party. Nearly 200 Conservative MPs publicly backed the former chancellor ahead of the nomination deadline on Monday.
After winning the contest, he is now expected to form his cabinet later this afternoon.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
(Picture credit: Chris McAndrew-Creative Commons)
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