While the Cabinet bicker among themselves – in meetings, media briefings and the FT letters’ page – about policy, behind the scenes chatter remains over who will be the next Tory leader. Handily, Conservative Home has today released its Cabinet League Table which shows where the various ministers lie when it comes to the party membership.
Re-confirming the consensus in the party that Theresa May will never lead the party into an election, the Prime Minister has endured a record fall among members – from top to second bottom. While Patrick McLoughlin is the least popular, Philip Hammond doesn’t fare much better, the chancellor has gone into the negative, he is third last on -11.5. While the Foreign Secretary has at least stayed in the clear, it will worry Team Boris that his rating has fallen – from 47.9 to 38.8, with Amber Rudd ahead.
The only two Cabinet ministers with reason for cheer are David Davis who is the most popular, followed by Michael Gove. Given that Gove was only just welcomed back into Cabinet after his fall from grace, it’s impressive that he is already ranked second. However, a second stab at the leadership could reopen old wounds and see his favourability fall.
Most striking, however, is that the politician who rates the highest is not even in the Cabinet. Unhelpfully for the Tories, it’s Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservatives leader. Given that Davidson has her sights set on becoming First Minister of Scotland, her likeability factor will not get the Tories out of their current mess. But whoever does take on the mantel from May can learn from Davidson, who ran a positive campaign in Scotland that resulted in impressive gains. Lots of Tories thought that Davidson would be toast with the members once they discovered her pro-EU views – but this just isn’t the case. What’s more, as a lesbian kickboxer who is a public christian, Davidson shows that there’s hope for liberal conservatism yet.
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