LONDON (The Independent) – More voters are deserting the UK’s Conservative party because of inaction on cost of living and rising bills than animosity to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a new poll has found.
The findings, seen by The Independent, come after Tory MPs forced the prime minister out of office, believing he had become an electoral liability.
But a survey by ComRes of wavering Tories suggests that it is raising energy bills more than Johnson himself who is most to blame – though he is also a significant drag on support.
The findings will make difficult reading for Tory MPs who hope that a change of leader will revive the party’s fortunes. It has lost support, including in the so-called “red wall”, with national polls showing it consistently behind Labor since the autumn.
The party also now risks losing seats in the south of England to the Liberal Democrats, who have won a series of stunning by-election victories across the bottom half of the country, including in previously save Tory seats.
ComRes interviewed a weighted sample of 2,208 UK adults between 8 and 10 July 2022, just after Johnson resigned.
Asked whether they were more or less likely to vote Conservative than this time last year, 43 percent said yes, with 38 percent saying they were no more or less likely to do so. 10 per cent said they were more likely.
Out of Conservative voters who responded and said they were less likely, 26 percent cited rising energy bills as their primary concern, ahead of 20 percent who cited Boris Johnson personally and 14 percent general corruption and sleaze.
Bills were far and away the main reason given in wavering Tories’ top three concerns, cited by 54 per cent, ahead of 35 percent Johnson and 34 per cent corruption and sleaze.
The government has been criticized for not doing enough to control bills and prices of essentials, with the perception particularly damaging to frontrunner Rishi Sunak because of the former chancellor’s association with the economy.