The Conservative leadership race: what do tory voters think of the candidates?

We are now accredited members of the British Polling Council. This weekend, we asked 1007 2019 Conservative voters to take a look at the images of the final candidates and give us their views on a range of topics. Including who looked most like a prime minister, who seems decisive and who they could see themselves voting for.

Voters thought Rishi Sunak came across as more prime ministerial than the other candidates, narrowly beating Penny Mordant.

Despite seeming less like a prime minister than Rishi, Penny Mordant came out ahead when voters were asked who looked like a natural leader, beating Rishi’s net score (agree-disagree) by 10 percentage points.

As well as looking more like a natural leader than Rishi, poll respondents also thought she looked more decisive, coming out in front of Rishi by just 2 percentage points, who was narrowly followed by Liz Truss.

Finally, when asked who they could see themselves voting for, Penny came top of the tables again, with a net score (agree - disagree) 11 percentage points ahead of her nearest contender, Liz Truss and 14 percentage points ahead of Rishi Sunak.

As a note on the survey, 1007 2019 Conservative voters were surveyed online by Bradshaw Advisory (British Polling Council member) between 15th and 16th July 2022. The data have been weighted to be representative of the UK adult population as a whole.

With a sample size of 1007 and considering the underlying number of total votes the Conservatives gained at the 2019 General Election (13,966,454) we can be 95% confident that the 'true result' lies within a maximum of plus or minus c.3% or the reported result. To look more closely at the results and to see the answers to a wider variety of the polling questions, data tables are available here.