Tory Leadership Hopeful Is Now Celebrating One Of The Smallest Wins Possible

Tom Tugendhat is boasting about a statistic which is really not that flattering in his leadership campaign.

The shadow security minister is running to be the next Conservative Party leader, and is already rolling out the marketing to promote his cause.

He shared a graphic on Friday based on stats from pollster Ipsos which showed he was leading against his potential competitors in the Tory leadership race in one particular area.

An online poll asked 1,092 British adults, aged between 18 and 75, “Who would do a good job as Conservative leader?”

More participants thought Tugendhat was the best option than any of the other anticipated candidates.

But, he still only scored an overall net rating of +1, a statistic he then put on his campaign.

Yes, that means he only just secured a positive result with the public.

Still, he was ahead of his potential rivals...

Robert Jenrick was sort of snapping at heels with -8 rating, James Cleverly is behind that on -10 and Kemi Badenoch relatively close at -11.

Bizarrely, the poll included Nigel Farage, who is not a Tory MP right now but leader of the populist group Reform UK, the party which siphoned off some of the Conservative vote.

Yet Farage is now an elected MP and could cross defect to the Tories if he wanted – and if they’d have him.

He was far behind Tugendhat in the poll, with a -20 net rating, while former home secretary Suella Braverman trails on -27 – and her predecessor Priti Patel brings up the rear with -35.

The survey was conducted between 12 and 15 July, 2024, before nominations for the next Tory leader had opened.

As of July 26, Tugendhat, Cleverly and Jenrick have officially put themselves forward, as has shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride, who is not in the poll.

Badenoch, Braverman and Patel are yet to announce their leadership bids.