Former business secretary Kemi Badenoch has twice as much support as her nearest rival to take over as Conservative Party leader, a poll has found.
Badenoch secured the backing of 31 per cent of those surveyed, according to research by YouGov for the Party Members Project by Queen Mary and Sussex Universities.
This was compared to former home secretary Suella Braverman at 16 per cent; former security minister Tom Tugendhat at 15 per cent; and another former home secretary James Cleverly at 10 per cent.
While former immigration minister Robert Jenrick was on seven per cent, and former Boris Johnson era home secretary Priti Patel scored just six per cent.
But a fifth of those polled said they would prefer Boris Johnson to return, and 10 per cent wanted to see Reform UK leader Nigel Farage take over.
It came as the poll revealed that close to half of the Tories’ grassroots membership backed a merger with Reform UK, with Braverman the only candidate to hint at this move so far.
Candidates have been setting out their stalls in recent days, with Cleverly writing in the Times: “There is strength in unity, and the Conservative party has always been at its best when it embraces being a broad church.
“We lost voters to the left and right, and we won’t win them all back if we narrow our offer.”
But in leaked shadow cabinet comments Badenoch reportedly branded former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to hold the election in early July “disastrous”, and suggested Braverman was having a “very public” breakdown, after making controversial public remarks.
The North West Essex MP since called it a “shame”, but did not deny making the nervous breakdown remark about Braverman, who then took to X, formerly Twitter, to say: “I’d be interested in knowing whether Kemi thinks I’m having a ‘very public nervous breakdown’.”
Longtime Conservative MP Bob Blackman was this week elected to run the 1922 committee – an influential group of Tory backbenchers – and will guide the leadership election rules.
Sunak, who remains party leader, addressed the meeting on Wednesday evening.