If things seem bad, they can always get worse. That’s the message for poor Rishi Sunak in the latest ConservativeHome league table of party members. The Prime Minister today records his worst ratings ever, racking up a dire -25.4 among card-carrying Conservatives. It comes after a yo-yoing three months in which his negative ratings rose to 25.8 after the Net Zero speech before falling slightly to 7.1 after party conference season. But Sunak is now bottom of his own cabinet – one place beneath longtime-struggler Jeremy Hunt, whose ratings rise to ‘just’ -13.4. So much for that Autumn Statement bounce…
The other big beasts around the cabinet table fare little better either. Lord Cameron's return is hardly a triumphant one, with the membership awarding him -4.9 and a fourth-from-bottom finish. James Cleverly, the man he replaced, has seen his ratings plummet as he fell from first with 72 points to eleventh from bottom with 10.6 points. As ConservativeHome's editor Paul Goodman notes: 'it’s fair to say that whatever you think of the new Home Secretary’s performance since he was appointed, pleasing Conservative activists seems to have been just about the last thing on his mind, for better or worse.'
Indeed, just about the only members of the cabinet polling well are those that, er, stood against Sunak in the summer of 2022. Kemi Badenoch, on 63 points, and Penny Mordaunt, on 49.8, are the only Cabinet members who break the half-century barrier while Tom Tugendhat finishes fifth on 31.2. Newly-appointed Esther McVey and army man Johnny Mercer make up the rest of the top five too.
With legislation to fix the Rwanda scheme expected in the coming days, the week isn't exactly off to a great start for Sunak and his newly-appointed Home Secretary...
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