Boris backlash: Poll reveals voters think May is a stronger leader and more decent than Johnson after his fiery intervention at Tory Party conference
- Theresa May outpolled Boris Johnson among general voters and Tory voters
- Mr Johnson used his Tory conference fringe speech to lash May’s Chequers plan
- PM is in a race against time to get a Brexit deal done as crunch EU summit looms
- PM made a direct appeal for Labour voters to back her moderate Tories in article
Theresa May received a boost today as a poll found that voters back her over Boris Johnson.
The ex Foreign Secretary has become the PM’s arch critic since quitting the Cabinet in fury at her Chequers Brexit plan.
And he lobbed another grenade into the debate when he gave a fiery speech lashing the PM’s plans and telling her to ‘chuck’ Chequers – sending the 1,500-strong crowd wild.
But Mrs May hit back by calling for her party to unite behind her to deliver Brexit in what many said was the best speech she has given as leader.
And in a boost for the embattled PM, a poll found that voters see her as a stronger leader and more decent person than Mr Johnson.
It comes as the PM made a direct appeal for Labour voters to abandon Jeremy Corbyn and switch to her ‘moderate’ Tory party.
The Prime Minister said the Tories have a ‘patriotic’ programme, including a new emphasis on house building, as she tried to claim the middle ground of politics.
Theresa May outpolled Boris Johnson among general voters and Tory voters on a string of questions – including who is the more decent person and who is seen as a strong leader
Theresa May (pictured today going to church in Maidenhead with her husband Philip) is facing a mutiny from her backbench Tory MPs who are demanding she ditch her Chequers plan
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The survey, by the pollsters Opinium for the Observer, also found that the PM polls higher than her former minister among Tory activists.
It found that 83 per cent of voters think Mrs May is a decent person against 48 per cent for Mr Johnson, for Tory voters this was 47 per cent and 30 per cent in the PM’s favour.
May makes direct appeal to Labour voters to back her ‘moderate’ Tory party
Theresa May has made a direct appeal for Labour voters to abandon Jeremy Corbyn and switch to her ‘moderate’ Tory party.
The Prime Minister said the Tories have a ‘patriotic’ programme, including a new emphasis on house building, as she tried to claim the middle ground of politics.
Writing in the Observer, the PM said: ‘I want voters who may previously have thought of themselves as Labour supporters to look at my Government afresh.
‘They will find a decent, moderate and patriotic programme that is worthy of their support.’
Her pitch for the centre ground comes after reports she was trying to persuade Labour MPs to back her Brexit plan in the national interest.
Mrs May’s remarks in the Labour-supporting newspaper come after she pledged to end austerity in her conference speech in Birmingham last week.
Many Labour voters have deserted the party in protest at the hard-left politics of Mr Corbyn and his allies, and the anti-Semitism crisis.
And she used the article to again claim that the end of austerity ‘is in sight’ and that the spending taps will be turned on.
She said: ‘The British people are not bound by ideology and there has never been a time when party labels have counted for less.
‘This presents an opportunity Conservatives must seize – to be a party not for the few, not even for the many, but for everyone in our country who works hard and plays by the rules.’
While 81 per cent of Tories say they think Mrs May has the nation’s best interests at heart – far higher than the 52 per cent who said the same for Mr Johnson.
Among general voters this stood at 43 per cent for the PM and 30 per cent for the ex foreign secretary.
And Mrs May also poled higher when voters were quizzed about who they see as a strong leader.
Nearly two thirds (63 per cent) of Tories think Mrs May is a strong leader – nearly twice as many of the 39 per cent who said the same of Mr Johnson.
Among all voters it stood at 32 per cent for Mrs May and 27 per cent for Mr Johnson.
The findings suggest that Mr Johnson’s fiery intervention in Birmingham last week has not gone down well on the doorstep.
The former Brexiteer cast a long shadow over the party’s annual conference and threatened to plunge it into civil war after making a series of outspoken interventions on the eve of the event.
He toured the television studios to lash Mrs May’s Chequers plan and told a newspaper he though the proposal was ‘deranged’.
And he used a fiery speech at a conference fringe meeting to fire off a volley more insults at the PM’s Brexit plan in a move which threatened to totally overshadow the PM’s big speech the next day.
The 1,500-seater hall was packed with Tory activists who went wild for the speech and leading Conservative MPs and former Cabinet ministers – including Priti Patel and Iain Duncan Smith – sat in the front row to cheer Mr Johnson on.
Mr Johnson used it to warn that ‘after 1000 years of independence this country might really lose confidence in its democratic institutions’.
He said he was devastated that ‘we should be so demoralised and so exhausted as to submit those institutions – forever – to foreign rule’.
‘If I have a function here today – it is to try, with all humility, to put some lead in the collective pencil, to stop what seems to me to be a ridiculous seeping away of our self-belief, and to invite you to feel realistic and justified confidence in what we can do,’ he said.
The poll today comes as the PM made a pitch for Labour voters to back her ‘moderate’ Tory Party as she again pledged to end austerity and get the country building.
She said the Tories have a ‘patriotic’ programme, including a new emphasis on house building, as she tried to claim the middle ground of politics.
Boris Johnson (pictured at Tory Party conference last week) gave a fiery speech lashing the PM’s plans and telling her ‘chuck’ Chequers – sending the 1,500-strong crowd wild
Writing in the Observer, the PM said: ‘I want voters who may previously have thought of themselves as Labour supporters to look at my Government afresh.
‘They will find a decent, moderate and patriotic programme that is worthy of their support.’
Her pitch for the centre ground comes after reports she was trying to persuade Labour MPs to back her Brexit plan in the national interest.
Many Labour voters have deserted the party in protest at the hard-left politics of Mr Corbyn and his allies, and the anti-Semitism crisis.
Mrs May used the article to again claim that the end of austerity ‘is in sight’ and that the spending taps will be turned on.
She said: ‘The British people are not bound by ideology and there has never been a time when party labels have counted for less.
‘This presents an opportunity Conservatives must seize – to be a party not for the few, not even for the many, but for everyone in our country who works hard and plays by the rules.’
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