Just one in seven voters (15 per cent) say that Liz Truss’s dramatic U-turn on corporation tax and dismissal of chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng have given them greater confidence in her leadership, according to a new poll.
More than half (52 per cent) said she was right to sack her chancellor following his catastrophic mini-Budget, against just 22 per cent who said she should have allowed him to stay.
But seven in 10 (71 per cent) said that Ms Truss cannot now regain the trust of the British public – including two-thirds (65 per cent) of those who voted Tory in the 2019 general election.
More than four times as many of those questioned by Savanta ComRes blamed Truss than Kwarteng (by 24 per cent to 6 per cent) for the UK’s current economic woes, while three-fifths (60 per cent) said they were equally to blame.
The survey of 1,088 voters was taken across the country in the hours after Mr Kwarteng’s ejection.
More than two in five (44 per cent) of those questioned said that Ms Truss’s actions today gave them less confidence in her as PM, compared to just 15 per cent who said it made them more confident in her.
Two in five (42 per cent) think she will be ousted as leader of the Conservative Party this year, with a third (33 per cent) saying it’ll be in 2023.
Commenting on the findings, Savanta political research director Chris Hopkins said: “Just another normal day in UK politics finds the country under its fourth chancellor in as many months following Truss’s sacking of Kwarteng.
“Although the public think it’s the right decision, they are not forgiving of the prime minister, and her moves today appear to have done little to improve her standing among public opinion, her own MPs or the markets.”
“There seem very few places for Truss to go now. While she will try to ride it out, it increasingly feels like her removal is case of ‘when’ not ‘if’.
“However, given the Conservative poll ratings – our latest showed a 28-point Labour lead – her removal will only intensify calls for a general election.
“For Conservative MPs at the moment that’s like turkeys voting for Christmas.”
– Savanta ComRes questioned 1,088 adults in Britain on 14 October.
