NEW polling has found Tory leadership contender Kemi Badenoch is the most popular shadow cabinet minister among Conservative members.
The former business secretary is head and shoulders above the competition, according to a survey of Tory members by the ConservativeHome website.
The North West Essex MP has a net satisfaction rating of 45.1%, with runner-up Jeremy Hunt on 27.3%.
Hunt has ruled himself out of the leadership election to replace Rishi Sunak so the next best performer included in the rankings is former home secretary James Cleverly (below) on 26.3%.
Badenoch is popular among Tory members, who get the ultimate say after a series of votes by MPs to whittle down the full list of candidates to two finalists, though she is thought to be less so among parliamentarians.
She is a keen culture warrior, having used her time in government to weigh in on debates around transgender self-identification, racism and the legacy of the British Empire among others.
Among those in contention for the top job, former security minister Tom Tugendhat comes next on 14.2%, with underdog Mel Stride following on 14%.
The poll does not give ratings for former Home Office minister Robert Jenrick or one-time home secretary Priti Patel (above).
ConservativeHome deputy editor Henry Hill said the ratings showed the declining satisfaction ratings of Tory politicians since their electoral drubbing in June.
He wrote: “Now we’re obviously grading on a curve, as the overall ratings for the shadow cabinet are truly anaemic; where eight Cabinet members posted scores of 20 or more in May, that is now the number that manage double digits.
“But even so, Hunt’s 27.3 would have made him the fourth-most popular member of the Cabinet back in the spring.”
Hill noted that Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross (above), who lost his position as an MP at the election, saw a spectacular fall from grace in the rankings after “plunging from fourth-placed following the defenestration of Humza Yousaf to the second-lowest score after the Tories’ disappointing result in Scotland”.
