Conservative leadership race: Liz Truss opens 34-point lead over Rishi Sunak in new poll

Liz Truss now leads Rishi Sunak in the race for Tory leadership by a devastating 34 points, according to a new poll of Tory members who will ultimately choose the next prime minister.

Although the ex-Chancellor won the backing of many more Tory MPs at the start of the competition, the deciding ballots are being sent this week to the party's most staunchly right-wing loyalists, who have long favored the Foreign Secretary.

A new YouGov poll now suggests that 60% of Tory members intend to choose Ms Truss to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, compared to only 26% who want Mr. Sunak nominated. Downing Street.

The poll, conducted for The Times between July 29 and August 2 - a period in which the first two of 12 scheduled leadership campaigns took place held in Leeds and Exeter - says the Foreign Secretary has significantly extended her lead in recent days.

YouGov that support for Ms Truss has risen 11% since a previous poll of party members , performed as third-place rival Penny Mordaunt was eliminated and the pair reached the final stage of the contest. Mr. Sunak dropped five points over the same period.

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The results also suggest that the Foreign Secretary was able to influence previously undecided members and those who previously had the intention not to vote at all - these figures falling from 15% to 11% and 6% to 2% respectively since the last YouGov poll.

However, much of the groundwork was done before the Ms Truss's first major campaign misstep, which came in the form of an embarrassing U-turn on a promise to cut public sector wages for workers outside London on Tuesday - just 12 hours after her announcement. pair

The Foreign Secretary's campaign had touted £8.8billion in potential savings if his plans for regional pay boards were extended beyond the civil service to "all public sector workers ".

But the plans were immediately lambasted by Tory colleagues as 'leveling down, not up', with influential Tory Mayor Ben Houchen calling it 'absolutely bonkers' and a 'ticking time bomb' that could have cost the party the next general election.

Tees Valley Mayor and former Health Secretary Matt Hancock - both Sunak supporters - were among the Tories to compare the failure of political engagement to the "madness tax" fiasco deemed partly responsible for Theresa May's failure to secure a majority in the 2017 general election.

The former Conservative Chief Whip Mark Harper went further in asserting nt that the late Tory titan Margaret Thatcher would 'be livid' over the £8.8billion hole left in Ms Truss' plans after the U-turn, and urged the Foreign Secretary to 'stop blaming reporters" after seeking to claim she had been "misrepresented" in completely accurate reports of her politics press release.

YouGov's findings also stood in contrast to mystery polls - subject to much debate on Tuesday - which suggested that Mr Sunak's fortunes could improve.

The survey of just over 800 Tory members, carried out by the Italian company Techne between July 27, found that the ex-Chancellor was just six points behind Ms Truss, at 47 and 53 per cent respectively, excluding respondents who said they "don't know". ” who to vote for.