A whopping 12 members of the Cabinet are now more disliked than liked by Conservative Party members, as Rishi Sunak secures his lowest-ever approval rating. The key monthly poll, conducted by the Conservative Home website, finds mass dissatisfaction towards the Cabinet by Tory party members, with just one Cabinet member polling more than 50 points of the available 100.
Rishi Sunak has hit his lowest-ever score, on minus 27.7, beaten only by immigration minister Michael Tomlinson on a dire -43.1.
Joining Mr Sunak in negative territory are Jeremy Hunt, Richard Holden, Michael Gove, Oliver Dowden, Andrew Mitchell, David Cameron, Simon Hart, James Cleverly, Laura Trott, Mark Harper and Claire Coutinho.
A swathe of senior cabinet ministers, including the health, education, environment and culture secretaries, only just scraped into positive territory.
Leading the pack, as she often has in members’ popularity polls, is Kemi Badenoch on +56.2.
However while she may take comfort from this, her support is down around 20 points compared to a couple of years ago.
Following Ms Badenoch are Johnny Mercer and Penny Mordaunt, on 42.8 and 42 respectively.
The poll, as well as demonstrating Mr Sunak’s leadership troubles, speaks to a wider malaise and dissatisfaction with the Tory party’s leading politicians among its grassroots.
The Conservative Home website says the findings are “a good indicator of how much air has gone out of the Government over the past half a year – and that from a low base”.
“Few people are ever likely to have very strong opinions about everyone who attends a body so large as the modern Cabinet. The overall scores are, therefore, likely a useful barometer for our panel’s sentiments about the Government as a whole.
“Five months into the Prime Minister’s post-conference fightback, it’s looking as bleak as ever it has.”
Mr Sunak’s allies are braced for more leadership plotting and agitation following the local elections on May 2.
The Tories, who are defending 1000 seats, are set to lose around half.
So far just Dame Andrea Jenkyns and Sir Simon Clarke have openly called on Mr Sunak to quit.
