It Turns Out Boris And Rishi Have Something In Common...

I am told there is at least one Conservative MP who voted to get rid of Boris Johnson who now thinks that the party should have stuck with the leader who won them the 2019 election.

- JOHN RENTOUL

MPs who change their minds tend to be shy about it, and I have been unable to identify him or her, but I have been assured that they exist. More importantly, the argument that the Tory party would be better off if it had kept Johnson in No 10 has some plausibility, so it is worth testing.

YouGov reports that Rishi Sunak’s favourability rating is now worse than Johnson’s was in September last year, when Johnson stood down. This is true, but it is worth noting that Johnson was even more unpopular at the time he announced his resignation, in July. Once he said he was going, his rating bounced back a little, while he carried on being prime minister, not doing much, during the two months of the Tory leadership election.

Sunak is not yet as unpopular as Johnson at his most unpopular (a net favourable rating of minus 49, versus minus 53), but there is not much in it. The prime minister may not find much comfort in this, but he still has some way to go to be as unpopular as Liz Truss (minus 70). And even she may not have been the most unpopular prime minister there has ever been.