'Confidence falls to Truss levels'

PUBLIC confidence in the Conservatives’ leadership of the UK has fallen to levels last seen when Liz Truss was prime minister, a new poll has suggested.

Some 25% of the public told pollster Ipsos UK they were confident that the Conservatives could provide “strong and stable leadership”, with 70% saying they did not.

The figures were similar to those seen shortly before Ms Truss left office in October 2022, when 71% said they did not have confidence in the Tories’ leadership.

They also represented a deterioration from when Rishi Sunak took over. Once Ms Truss had been replaced, the number of people saying they lacked confidence in the party fell to 54%, but this had risen again over the past year.