Two thirds say Conservative MPs should try and replace Liz Truss as Prime Minister

Two thirds (67%) say Conservative MPs should replace Liz Truss as Prime Minister, according to a new snap poll from Savanta ComRes.

Just one in five (21%) say that Conservative MPs should aim to keep Truss, while a majority of 2019 Conservative voters (62%) say that MPs should work to remove her.

A similar proportion (65%) of the public say that Truss cannot regain the trust of Conservative MPs, the Conservative members that elected her (63%) or the financial markets (67%), while almost three quarters (75%) say she cannot regain the trust of the British public, up 4 points from last week.

Given his recent appointment and his ideological opposition to his predecessor, Kwasi Kwarteng, who was supposedly in lockstep with the Prime Minister, this poll finds that half (51%) say Jeremy Hunt is more in charge of the government’s economic agenda, while only 14% say it is Liz Truss. One in six (18%) say they are both equally in charge.

And given the market reactions to Truss and Kwarteng’s mini-budget three weeks ago, and the subsequent scrapping of most of it by Jeremy Hunt, two in five (41%) say the financial markets have more power in how the UK is governed, compared to just a quarter (27%) that say it is the Prime Minister.

Following Hunt’s u-turn on the mini-budget, the public are split over whether they are more (28%) or less (30%) confident in the UK’s economy improving, with four in ten (38%) saying it makes little difference.

Over half (56%) say Liz Truss will no longer be the leader of the Conservative Party by the end of the year, up from 42% last week.

Chris Hopkins, Political Research Director at Savanta ComRes said, “Hunt’s intervention may have done a little to quell the markets, but the public are more split on whether the mini-budget u-turn gives them more or less confidence in the UK’s economy.

“The public perception of Hunt is that he’s in the drivers seat, steering UK government policy, and swirling rumours that Truss will be imminently removed by Conservative MPs, supported by the public in this poll, will do nothing but fan those flames.”